Hakumei
by Pryotra
Summary: Danzo's plan for the assassination of the Hokage was almost flawless. To bad he didn't take six neglected children who ran away the night of the murder into account.
1. Part 1: One Dark Night

_Author's Corner: This is probably something that I've wanted to do the longest. Even before I had seen Naruto I had a story something like this going around in my head, but I could never get it to stick to any group of characters. First of all, I will say that I think that Sasuke, Sai, Neji, Gaara, and Naruto would make a really interesting group of friends. Second, I think that Sakura was actually a good character once she grew up a little. Third, I actually really like Hinata. Finally, I think that Haku and Kimimaru really deserve a whole lot better then they got. So they are the main characters of this story. _

_Pairings: Naruto/Hinata Sasuke/Sakura Sai/Ino Gaara/Matsuri, others are up for voting. _

_Warnings: Blood, violence, alcoholic references, gambling, and many things that will contradict the manga, however, I will do what I can to make such things believable._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra has no connection with the anime or manga 'Naruto' or any of its characters. _

_**Of all the thirty-six alternatives, running away is best.**_

-_**Chinese Proverb**_

* * *

**Hyuuga Compound: 10:34 PM**

Hyuuga Hinata stood in horror as she watched her cousin stand in front of the elders. It seemed like the entire Hyuuga Head Family was there to see his punishment. For the six year old girl, the whole thing was overwhelming. She remembered the first time she saw the Cage Bird Seal activate when she was three. It had frightened her so much that sometimes, she would still have nightmares about it.

It wasn't like Neji had really done anything wrong, Hinata found herself thinking, he had only forgotten to address her as Hinata-sama. But it seemed that the elders would take any excuse to remind the Branch Family of what the Head Family was capable of.

Neji stood defiantly in front of the elders, headed by Hyuuga Hiashi, Hinata's father. His white eyes displayed only one emotion: hatred.

"You know the punishment for insubordination," Hiashi was saying coldly, "and you have seen if before."

Hinata's stomach clenched.

Neji's eyes found Hinata's and held them. She could feel the malice in his gaze, yet for some reason, she wasn't able to return it. Her father would have told her she was weak, he would have been angry that she looked at him with sadness, but it was impossible for her not to. Neji was the closest thing Hinata had to a brother, and strangely enough, he was the only one who truly understood the emotions she felt. That was why she couldn't hate him. Because he had felt the hopeless, frustrated anger that she had all her life. The anger that sometimes reduced Hinata to tears when she was alone after a training session had gone badly.

He was probably the only one who had known her feelings when she had been shuffled aside in favor of Hanabi, who now stood at her father's side with an unreadable face.

She looked sadly at Neji, wishing that she wasn't such a failure.

Maybe if she was strong, like she was supposed to be, she could stop this madness.

"Have you anything to say before the seal activates?" Hiashi asked.

"I have nothing to say to you, murderer!" Neji spat.

Hiashi's eyes narrowed, and Neji crumpled to the ground screaming and twitching.

Hinata felt bile rising in her throat. This was just like the time when she was three, and she had watched Neji's father writhing on the ground in pain. She felt hot tears coming to her eyes as she watched. Hinata didn't have to look around to know that the looks on the others faces were cold, hard, and completely uncaring. Her hands clenched into fists and she turned her head away.

Hinata knew she was weak, and she knew that she should feel satisfaction that her cousin was getting punished for his insubordination. She knew that Hanabi would never have felt the way that she did, and her father would look down on her further if she tried to stop him. She was too weak to be a true member of the Head Family. She remained unbranded simply because she would be more useless as a Branch Family member. She would be too weak to accept that way of life anymore then the one she had been born into.

But was it so bad to be weak?

The through sprang up in Hinata's mind before she could repress it. Was it so bad to be compassionate? Was it so wrong to be kind?

"No," Hinata whispered, so quietly that no one heard it, "I can't believe it is."

She remembered when, before he father had given up on her, she had been asked a question in her training.

"_What would you do with power?"_

Hinata had been unable to answer that question, but Hanabi, who had been there at the time, had piped up that she would crush everyone who was her enemy. Her father had seemed pleased with the younger sibling's remark, and angry at his oldest daughter's thoughtful silence.

"_What would you do with power?"_

Now the question had come back to her. Before, Hinata hadn't known what to think. She hadn't been aloud to have her own opinions, but she had never been able to simply parrot her father's thoughts. All she had felt was confusion and a frustrated feeling that churned in her stomach. Now, the words seemed to have more weight then they had even had then.

As she looked at her cousin, who was starting to twitch slightly, her answer came.

_I would stop this. I would change the Hyuuga clan. I would help people who needed it._

The world stopped.

Hinata felt a gentle warmth in her eyes and closed them for a moment. When she opened them, the whole room looked different. She had activated the Byakugen before, and this was similar, but something about it was completely different. Hinata could not only see the Chakra system of her family as well as nearly everything around her, she could see a stream of Chakra that her father was forcing into Neji's seal as well as the Chakra that it was forcing itself into his brain. She could also see that the seal was only a physical sign of where an invisible layer of Chakra remained.

It was strange how she hadn't seen that before.

Hinata wasn't even thinking as she walked forwards. She didn't even notice the looks of surprise and shock that she was receiving from her family.

Hinata felt almost like she was watching other person as she calmly touched the stream of Chakra. At her touch, the Charka dispersed, and Neji stopped twitching. Hinata turned to her cousin and knelt down in front of him. Carefully, she traced the seal on his forehead with her finger. As she touched it, the seal vanished, and the layer of Chakra began to disappear as well.

"What are you doing?" Hiashi Hyuuga's voice seemed weaker then before.

Hinata looked up at her father, not really understanding why he was looking at her with such shock and…fear.

"H-healing him," Hinata said, "The seal is bad. It's killing him,"

"What did you do!" one of the Hyuuga cried out.

"I-I took it off," Hinata said, "I don't want to see him hurt anymore."

The silence in the room was complete until Hiashi stepped forward.

"You are not my daughter," he spat, "You have not only created a perversion of the families Byakugen, but you have broken our most sacred tradition. You're fortunate I don't kill you where you stand, but I see that you are too weak to be a threat. Get out of my sight. Since you care so much for the boy, he shall accompany you in banishment. I have no use for a coward who cannot understand his position. You are both forbidden to bare the name Hyuuga, and should I or anyone see you near the Hyuuga complex, we will kill you. You have until midnight to gather to leave."

Hinata stood trembling at the words of the man who had been her father. Tears sprang into her eyes as her sight returned to normal. She sat there, in shock while the rest of her former family left one by one, occasionally casting glances her way.

A touch at her elbow brought Hinata back to her senses. She looked around to see Neji, awake, shockingly, and looking at her with an emotion that she didn't recognize.

"Why?" was all he said, but his voice lacked the usual hatred.

"I-I couldn't stand to see it anymore…" Hinata mumbled, "I-I wanted to stop it. I-I…"

Neji shakily stood up and helped Hinata stand.

It was the beginning of a new world.

* * *

**Uchiha District 10:39 PM**

Uchiha Sasuke was not a happy boy. It wasn't fair that everything thing he did was either ignored or belittled or told some story about something Itachi had done when he was Sasuke's age.

It wasn't that he hated his older brother. It was impossible to hate the one person who acknowledged his existence, but he was so tired of having to compete with him. His mother and father barely seemed to know that they had another son. Every conversation was about Itachi. Itachi's missions, Itachi's successes, Itachi, Itachi, Itachi.

Sasuke sat on his bed and listened to the mumbles of the conversation from down the hall. His parents had given him something to eat early and sent him to his room while they entertained their guests. Sasuke was old enough to sit with company. Itachi had been shown off to guests since he had been three, why was Sasuke pushed off into a corner all the time?

Itachi was still out on his ANBU duties, and even if he were there, he would have just been roped into a conversation with their parents and guests.

Sasuke stood up and looked out the window. Rage coursed through him as he heard the sound of the conversation down the hall. He had often eavesdropped on the conversations, and heard what they said about him

"_Don't you have another son, Uchiha-san?"_

"_Yes, but he is of no importance,"_

That had been said last night, and even now the words hurt as much as they had when they were said.

Sasuke's anger was reaching its peak as he made his final decision.

"If you don't want me…" Sasuke muttered, "If I'm that unimportant…so insignificant…then I won't trouble you anymore…"

The action was mostly out of anger and desperation to be noticed. There was malice in it as well, and a desire to hurt his parents, but he hadn't thought out all the reasons. It was an act of passion, but it was carried out in a completely emotionless way.

Sasuke began to pack his weapons, some clothes, and money into a small backpack. He didn't have any plans yet on where he was going or what he was going to do, but he knew on thing.

Uchiha Sasuke was running away.

Unknown to him, there was a young man in ANBU uniform that was watching him slip out the window.

"Foolish otouto, what are you doing?"

It was the beginning of a new life.

* * *

**ROOT Base: 10:22 PM**

Sai had been taught well.

Technically, his name wasn't even _Sai_. That was just a name that, privately, he liked the sound of, and he had read that people needed to have names. He had chosen Sai on a whim, and no matter what, he had gotten into the habit of thinking of himself as Sai. It was as simple as that.

In all other regards, Sai was a near perfect example of a ROOT ninja. He never showed his emotions or thoughts about anything, and this time was no exception. He had returned from a mission only to be told that his brother was dead from the illness he had had for a while. Sai had accepted the news without a flinch, and had been allowed to return to his room.

Sai's room was as practical as it was possible to be. The only things other then the blank white walls were a bed and a small desk. Sai sat down at his desk quietly. For some reason the death of his brother made a strange feeling rise up in his chest.

He took out the small picture book that he had with him. It was an unfinished gift to his brother, but now he wasn't sure what he had been about to draw into the final page.

It was strange, he had never really had that much time with his brother, and technically, he wasn't really his brother, just another ninja who had been kind to him. The two of them were always separately training. Yet, somehow for all his ROOT training, Sai could feel a strange hollowness in his stomach that had nothing to do with hunger. He couldn't help the image of his brother that appeared before his eyes, or the dull feeling that Sai would never see him again.

Sai had never questioned anything that he was told before, but now, something was stirring in him. He had never thought anything against Danzo, but now, thoughts were rising up, and one was the most defined.

_It's his fault._

Sai stared at the wall in total silence, then stood up. He needed to clear his head.

He would take a walk.

It was the beginning of a new way of thinking

* * *

**Kohona Playground: 10:42 PM**

Uzumaki Naruto liked to go to the playground after dark. For one thing it was kind of fun to play at night, since there was a forbidden element to it. For another thing, he didn't have to feel left out when there was no one playing in groups.

Naruto sat on one of the swings, and looked up at the sky. Actually, he was fairly content to be like this. In his opinion it was useless to cry about being along all the time, and you really couldn't miss what you never had to begin with. Besides, when he became Hokage everything would change. Naruto smiled brightly at the thought.

"YEAH! I'LL DEFINITELY BECOME HOKAGE!" He yelled for no reason. It was a habit of his.

Naruto didn't like silence. He had lived in it way too long, so he would break, no shatter, silence if it became too oppressive. That was where his habit of randomly yelling things for no reason came from. There was nothing more to it.

Something move in some bushes to Naruto's right, and he jumped off the swing. It was probably just the local Feudal Lord's wife's cat again. That thing had a long history of running away. Maybe if Naruto caught it he would be acknowledged as a full ninja and not have to bother with the Academy anymore. Just in case it was something else, Naruto picked up a stick that was lying on the ground. He edged close to the bush and gently thrust the stick into the bush.

"Come here, kitty," Naruto said in a sing song voice, "I'm just gonna take you home."

"Go away!"

Naruto stopped.

The last time he had checked, cats didn't talk.

Naruto had never been known to do anything that anyone asked of him, unless it was Iruka-sensei or Old Man Hokage, and he was curious. He poked through the bushes and blinked at the girl curled up in the bushes.

"Hi!" Naruto said cheerfully, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm gonna be Hokage!"

The girl had short pink hair that was covering most of her face. One look at her told Naruto that she had been crying. She was hiccupping slightly, and the green eyes that looked up at him were red rimmed and somewhat unfocused. She sniffled a little and wiped her eyes. Finally, she looked up at him with fear.

"What's your name?" Naruto asked, with a huge smile that showed off the whisker shaped marks on his cheeks in full glory, "Why are you crying? Did your parents forget to come get you? Do you have parents? Is your hair real, or did someone get food coloring in it?"

"I…I…" the girl stuttered, "Leave me alone, PLEASE! I can't help my forehead being big!"

Naruto looked at her forehead with interest. It looked like a forehead.

"It's not big," Naruto said, a little disappointed, he had been imagining a forehead the size of Hokage mountain.

"It's…not?" the girl said, sounding confused, "but everyone says so…"

"It's not big," Naruto said, nodding to confirm his statement.

"I'm Haruno Sakura…" Sakura said softly.

Naruto was thrilled. He had never really have much of a conversation with anyone before. Mostly he just ran around and harassed the other kids until they let him into their game, but they didn't really like him that well. Naruto knew it, but hoped that he would eventually grow on them. Now, he was talking to another kid like it was normal.

Sakura straightened up from her ball and smiled shyly at Naruto, who grinned back.

The sound of someone talking softly brought both children out of whatever thoughts they were having. It sounded like someone their age, maybe a little older, and it was coming closer. After a while, Naruto could hear what the person was saying.

"…an apartment for the both of us. I'm not even sure if I'll be able to stay in the Academy now. I never really asked who was paying for it," the voice was definitely male.

"I-I think that it's standardized. I once h-heard fa-Hiashi-sama saying that it was a waste to spend money and time on children who will never be ninja," a soft, girl's voice said, she apparently had a bit of a stuttering problem.

"We'll have to speak to the Hokage. I know that he cannot intervene in clan matters, but he may able to help."

"Yeah!" Naruto broke in loudly when he knew the two could hear him, "the old man'll help you!"

He saw with interest that it was Hyuuga Hinata, a shy girl he knew in the academy who always blushed when she saw him, and Hyuuga Neji, a guy a year older then him that he didn't know much about.

"W-what are you doing out here, Naruto-kun," Hinata asked, looking like he was shocked by her bravery.

"Talking to Sakura-chan," Naruto said happily, already adding the familiar term to the girl's name, "What about you?"

"W-we-" Hinata began.

"That's none of your concern," Neji said bluntly.

"Why do you need an apartment?" Naruto asked.

"That's none of your concern," Neji repeated.

"You can use mine!" Naruto said happily, "It has lots of room!"

Hinata almost fainted at the idea.

Neji looked somewhat shocked that some kid he had only sort of seen as a person had offered to let him share his apartment.

"What about your parents?" Neji asked.

"Haven't got any,"

Neji looked somewhat surprised.

"N-Naruto-kun is an orphan, Neji-niisan. He lives on his own…" Hinata whispered.

Sakura was looking at Naruto with sadness.

"I live with my auntie," Sakura said, "My mommy and daddy are always away on…business,"

She said the word after a moment of thought, having to remember what her aunt said.

There was a sound of pounding footsteps and a black haired boy dashed into their midst and stopped, looking at the small group that had appeared with a bit of surprise. This was a very busy night at the playground.

"What are you doing here?!" the boy asked angrily.

"We could ask the same of you," Neji pointed out.

Naruto recognized the newcomer as Uchiha Sasuke, a boy in his year at the academy. They had never spoken with one another, mostly because Sasuke was at the top of the class and Naruto was the ever 'dead last'. Other then that, Naruto knew pretty much nothing about Sasuke, other then that he was a jerk with a ton of fangirls.

"That's none of your business," Sasuke spat.

"Everyone's saying that," Naruto whined.

"What are you doing here anyways?" Neji asked, looking annoyed.

"I always hang out here at night," Naruto said in a tone that implied just how obvious he thought the fact was.

"Why?" Sakura asked curiously, but when everyone looked at her, she made a small 'meeping' sound and took a few steps back.

"Why not?" Naruto asked with a shrug, for the first time, looking a little more serious, "No one really cares,"

The silence after that was so complete that everyone was able to hear the soft sound of someone walking slowly towards them. A boy about their age wandered into view. He had black hair and eyes, like Sasuke, but his hair was cut short, and there was something about him that was…creepy. He was wearing a black ninja outfit, and he didn't seem to notice them. When he finally looked up and noticed the five children looking at him, he stopped and smiled.

"Hello,"

They all just sort of stared at him.

"Is it usual to meet here?" the boy asked, looking at them like he really didn't know that a group of kids meeting in the dark was strange, "I'm sorry if I've interrupted anything."

"No, just a stupid talk about what we're doing here," Naruto said, he smile back in place, "What are you doing here?"

"I went for a walk," the boy said.

"A walk?" Sasuke repeated looking skeptical.

The boy nodded with that somewhat irritating smile on his face.

Even Naruto was looking skeptical now. He knew that most kids weren't allowed outside after sunset, in fact, this was the first time he had seen anyone out after dark.

Naruto was many things, but a complete idiot was not one of them. He knew perfectly well that there was something wrong with that explanation. Either this guy didn't have parents or he was lying.

Before Naruto could think of something clever to say, everyone stiffened as more footsteps and voices. This time they were the voices of two grown men. All six children looked at one another and plunged into the bushes. Naruto guessed for the same basic reason. They didn't want to get caught and in trouble for being out this late. Everyone knew that there was an unofficial curfew.

"I don't see why we couldn't have met in a more convenient location," the voice of the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi reached them.

"I apologize for bringing you out here, Hokage-sama, but I did not wish to be eavesdropped on," a cold, curt voice said.

Naruto noticed the boy who had just come stiffen.

"You know him?" Naruto asked.

"Sh!" came four responses, even Hinata had shushed him.

"Danzo-sama," was all that the boy said.

The speakers walked into full view. The first, an old man in long, white robes with a large hat, was the Hokage, a well loved old man who had taken back his position when Fourth died during the attack of the Kyuubi. The other was a man that Naruto had never seen in his life. Half of his face and his arm were wrapped in bandages, yet there was something about him that made Naruto uneasy. Although he seemed harmless, he emanated something dangerous and somehow, foul. Naruto didn't know how he knew this, but something told him that this man, Danzo, was a threat.

"Well, we've come here," Sarutobi said, sounding somewhat tired, "what was so important to ask me to come to a playground at ten-thirty?"

"Hokage-sama, you are growing old," Danzo began.

"I think I have ten more years left in me," the old man said with a smile.

"I don't think that is a good idea," Danzo said calmly, "As you grow old the Leaf's enemies begin to see a weakness. Sooner or later, there will be an attack, and you are aging, and even the best ninja cannot defeat time. There will be an opponent that you cannot defeat. I know that we have been rivals for the position of Hokage for decades, and that our ideals differ, but I feel that it would be best if you considered a new candidate for Hokage."

"You wish for my abdication and for me to proclaim you my heir," Sarutobi said, his voice growing cold.

"I feel that I am the only candidate," Danzo said calmly, "None of the young show the potential of the Fourth, and I am the most powerful ninja in the village besides you. I also have the experience necessary for a leader."

"I'm sorry, Danzo-san," Sarutobi said softly, "I can't consider that request at the moment, things are too hectic in the village at the moment for there to be a change in power."

"…I see…" Danzo said, and Naruto felt something, but before he could even think straight of what it was, he saw the Hokage stumble and fall on his back, blood shooting out of his mouth.

"I told you that you would meet an opponent that you couldn't defeat," Danzo said softly, a small smile forming on his lips, "such a pity. I even thought to give you a chance to live. You've grown weak and stupid in your old age, Sarutobi, to allow a man who had always been a rival and enemy to speak to you alone. Don't worry about your precious village. It will be far more powerful under me then you or the Fourth could have dreamed. A pity really, that Rock nins were capable of making it past the ANBU to assassinate you…I will be the only candidate in the war to avenge you…"

Calmly, like nothing at all had happened, Danzo walked over the body of the man that he had killed, and walked down the path, disappearing in a moment.

Naruto mind felt like it had frozen. Nothing was coming out straight. The Old Man couldn't be dead…he was unstoppable…he…he was Hokage!

"Old Man," Naruto whispered.

The others stood in dead silence.

"We're lucky to be alive," the strange boy said softly, "Danzo-sama wasn't paying attention…we…we shouldn't be alive…"

"Old Man!" Naruto screamed, running over to the body of the old man, outside of Iruka-sensei, who had cared if he was alive, "Old Man…please…wake up…you can't die…you're Hokage…"

Naruto didn't feel the other children run up behind him. He didn't hear the whispered warnings to be quiet. He truthfully couldn't have cared less if Danzo came back and killed them. All that mattered was that the man he thought of as a grandfather was dead. Tears coursed down his face as he sobbed.

Slowly, the eyes of the Sandaime opened and took in the six faces looking at him.

"…you saw…"

They nodded.

"…take these…you must leave…take them somewhere safe…don't let him have them…" he gasped out, blood coming from his mouth, "Naruto…I…proclaim you…my heir…as it should have been…if the council hadn't forbade me…become a Hokage like none before you…"

Slowly, the Hokage raised his hands and preformed a series of seals. There was a small pop, and a group of scrolls appeared before them.

"These…can't be found by…Danzo…too powerful…take them…somewhere…safe…hold…secrets…Uchiha…Hyuuga…too dangerous…secret limits…Tenshi Byakugen…sealing…keep them safe…..stop…Danzo…Naruto…the Kyuubi…sealed…Naruto…

Slowly the old man's eyes began to glaze over. Naruto shook him as hard as he could, but finally, he straightened up, his eyes dull.

Finally, he became aware of his surroundings. Hinata was sobbing quietly into Neji while he supported her, looking shocked and frightened while unshed tears blurred his white eyes. Sasuke was staring with dull horror at the body. Sakura was sobbing loudly in fear and sorrow.

"I want to go home," she gasped between sobs.

"We can't go back," the newcomer said suddenly, "Danzo-sama will kill us if he knows about this, and eventually, he will know."

"Why are you calling that filthy murderer sama!" Naruto spat angrily, "who the heck are you anyways?!"

"Sai," the boy said, "I'm a member of ROOT."

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"It's not important," Sai said, shaking his head, "we must leave right now. Danzo will kill us all."

"Besides," Naruto said softly, looking at the pile of scrolls, "Old Man Hokage gave us an order. We have to take these out of here."

"I'm not sure," Neji said, "He was delirious. How are we going to project those scrolls? We're just academy students."

"I-I think that…" Hinata began, then she took a deep breath, "W-we don't have a choice."

Sakura sobbed out in fear.

"Mommy and Daddy…"

"Will lose their daughter anyways," Sasuke said bluntly, "Either you run and live, or stay and die."

"I don't care what you do, I'm gonna do what the Old Man told me," Naruto told them all, "he said get these safe, and I'm gonna do it as the Future Hokage of Kohona. And them I'm gonna come back super strong and kill him and become Hokage."

Naruto turned around, not looking behind him, gathered up the scrolls as well as he could and ran as fast as he could towards the gates.

Sai followed him without a second thought. He was raised to be Danzo's tool, but he didn't want to die. Besides, Naruto reminded Sai of his brother…maybe it was a gift…

Hinata paused for a moment and dashed after him. Her crush had changed to admiration.

Neji followed his cousin, not wanting to lose the family that he had just gained.

Sakura stood terrified, staring at the body and at the retreating figures.

"I'm sorry…Mommy…Daddy…Auntie…I hope I'll be back soon…I don't want to die…" she whispered as she followed the others.

Sasuke stared at the others, not really wanting to follow the 'dobe' since he knew that if he did follow it would be like assenting to his leadership. Finally, he decided that he didn't really what to be a leader anyways and that he was still more powerful then Naruto would ever be. Conflict resolved, Sasuke shot after them.

It was the beginning of a legend.

* * *

In the end, everyone held one scroll. The scrolls were huge, and everyone was surprised that Naruto could have held all of them for as long as he had. They all supposed that it had something to do with his excitement.

The six crouched in the shadows of a building, watching the gate cautiously. They were planning to make a dash for freedom, but the Chuunin guards didn't seem to be showing any signs of not paying attention. In fact, an ANBU had decided to drop by and was helping the two Chuunin on watch.

"This is just great," Sasuke muttered sarcastically.

"Shut up!" Neji hissed.

"Did you hear something?" one of the Chuunin asked the ANBU.

There was a quick intake of six breaths.

"No," the ANBU replied in a dull tone.

Naruto let go of the air and shifted a little. There had to be a way to get around these guys. They just needed to think of one. Maybe he could try to distract them. He had never tried anything on the guards, but there was a good change that things wouldn't be too much different. They would chase him, and eventually lose him. Maybe he would have time to get out of Konoha before they got back.

Just before he jumped up to do something that would have been considered either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid, there was a sound of wheels approaching. The group turned to see a covered cart moving towards them, two men were moving it up to the gates, and they were stopping frequently.

"This thing weighs a ton," the younger of the two complained.

"Yeah," the other agreed, "Tell you what, we're going to be traveling most of the night anyways, so let's get a drink before we leave to give us some energy."

"Yeah!" the first said enthusiastically.

Both men moved the cart into a corner and wandered off to one of the nearby bars. Naruto knew that they were almost always open. Even the ramen shop that he always ate at would eventually close, but these things seemed to be open all the time. Vaguely, Naruto wondered just what these 'drinks' that the adults had really were. He had more experience then most people with people who had too much of the 'drinks'. The people who lived below him always seemed to be having them, and they did the strangest things. They would laugh, cry, hug one another, punch each other for no real reason and…talk about their mothers.

"Hey, I got an idea," Naruto announced.

"What?" Sai asked.

"Those guys are leaving Konoha, right?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," Sasuke nodded.

"They have a big cart that's covered, right?" Naruto asked.

"Right," Neji had a small smirk as he saw where this was going.

"Well…" Naruto trailed off.

"W-we could hide there," Hinata whispered.

"Right," Naruto grinned.

Slowly they crept towards the cart. Naruto was sure that the sound of his own heart was going to betray him to the guards. It was so loud. Or what if he sneezed, or one of the others sneezed. Naruto stumbled a little, but before he fell, Hinata had grabbed the back of his shirt. It seemed like an eternity before they made it too the cart, and even longer for them to all pile into it. Naruto realized quickly that it was going to be a long, uncomfortable trip.

The cart was full of large, heavy looking vessels. There was barely enough room for the six of them to squeeze together, and with the scrolls, if one of them moved so much as an elbow, all the others were going to have to move, and someone would probably end up on someone else's lap.

The little group arranged itself as best they could in a circle with the scrolls in the center. No one dared to speak as the minutes dragged on, all of them were probably too afraid of being discovered, Naruto thought, since this really was the only change they were going to have to get away.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered just why everything was going so well. The whole thing had begun to have an unreal feel to it, like some sort of dream, but the words of Sai haunted him.

"_We shouldn't be alive,"_

Naruto suppressed a shudder.

After waiting in total silence for over an hour, the over-loud voices and somewhat dragging footsteps of the two men became audible.

"Man, that was great!" the younger man's voice was somewhat slurry.

"Konoha sake is the best," the other proclaimed.

"You said that about Kumo too," the first pointed out.

"Did I?"

"Yeah,"

"Who cares!"

There was a lurch as the cart began to move, both man swore loudly about the weight and the children sat, frozen with fear.

"Evening," a new voice called, "What's your business?"

"Leaving," the older man said, "We know it's not policy to let us out at this time, but we're kind of behind schedule, and we need to get going, our boss is gonna kill us."

"Your with that packing company right?" the voice of the second Chuunin asked, "Well, we've worked with you guys long enough to know that you're not up to anything. We'll just to the routine check and you can be one your way."

"I'll do it," a calm, young voice said. Probably the ANBU.

Sasuke twitched somewhat.

Naruto looked at him strangely, and noticed that his eyes were huge.

The flapped opened before Naruto could think of anything, and a uniformed man with a weasel mask was staring at them. All six stared back in horror.

The ANBU made a quick hand sign and a scroll appeared in Sasuke's lap. There was no bang, or any other sound to give away the action. Sasuke stared at the man with a kind of wonder.

"Good luck, Otouto," Naruto barely heard the whisper, "It's clear," the man said in a normal tone, "Proceed."

There was another lurch as the cart went back into motion.

"Night, and good luck," one of the Chuunin called.

It was the beginning of new day.

* * *

Uchiha Itachi walked quickly back to the Uchiha District. All in all, he felt rather proud of himself. He had no real love for his family other then his younger brother, and if Sasuke had finally gotten fed up with his treatment and run off with some friends, Itachi wasn't going to do a thing about it. Sasuke was the other member of the family who had even looked at him with love. The rest of his clan, including his parents saw him simply as a tool to gain more power. Even his best friend, Shishui sometimes looked at him with total jealousy.

He would say nothing to his clan, perhaps they would noticed that a valuable scroll that contained copies of the Uchiha's signature moves had disappeared. They would notice that before noticing that Sasuke was gone.

He turned a corner and was so caught in his own thoughts that he didn't see the figure of the man in the shadows.

"Uchiha Itachi?"

Itachi turned around.

It was the beginning of a nightmare.

* * *

Hyuuga Hiashi was not a cruel man. He loved his eldest daughter more then he would ever say. She reminded him so much of his dead wife with her gentle ways and quiet personality. It had broken his heart to disown her.

Neji would take care of her. He assured himself. There was nothing better that Hinata could have done then remove the seal from her cousin. He was strong and dedicated. Once he had something to believe in, he would follow it until he died. The counsel would have never let her be the new head at any rate. They would have passed over her and chosen Hanabi, who was better at hiding her feelings and behaving as they thought a Hyuuga should.

If only he had the power that people thought he had.

Hiashi's thoughts were interrupted by the door flying open.

"Hiashi-sama!" A head family member stood at the door, looking breathless, "The Hokage is dead!"

"WHAT!" Hiashi's cold mask faded instantly.

"He's been found at the playground, assassinated, all signs are of Rock nins. The counsel has called for an emergency meeting, but Danzo has already been nominated as the next Hokage."

It was the beginning of terror.

It was the beginning of Hakumei

* * *

_Final notes:_

_About Sai: I like Sai, and I think that his character is somewhat neglected in the manga. Also, he is a little out of character simply because he is younger and hasn't gone through the same about the training as his older self. The reason he didn't kill the others and tell Danzo that he had killed all the witnesses is simple: Danzo would have killed him anyways. He wouldn't anyone, including his followers to know what he had done._

_About Itachi: I had to have someone check the cart, since really, if they didn't it just wouldn't make sense. Also, remember, this is an AU and I already said that there would be some differences between this and the manga._

_About parings: I am completely open to opinions when most of the parings, but I refuse to write any yaoi couples. The closest thing I can write is that "Lee" "Gai-sensei" stuff with a sunset behind them, so please don't ask._

_The main characters who need a paring are:_

_Kimimaru _

_Haku_

_Shikamaru_

_Konohamaru (he's actually going to play a part in this story)_

_Kiba_

_I'm open to most suggestions._

_Please review and tell me what you think of this story, and whether I should continue it, and vote on the parings. All criticism and ideas are welcome._

_-Pryotra_


	2. Part 1: Child of Sand

Author's corner: Well, here I am again

_Author's corner: Well, here I am again. I really enjoy writing this story, and it's a really good for me at any rate. I will attempt to write twenty pages per chapter, give or take two pages. Someone reviewed me and asked if I was going to make Naruto a loud, stupid ninja, and my answer here is the same as my reply: don't worry. I can't stand the way that Naruto is portrayed most of the time. That doesn't mean I'm going to turn him into some sort genius either. I want him to be power and smart, but believable. I have this problem with godlike characters running around. Besides, I have a tendency to really pump up my villains, so I need decently strong heroes. Thank you to everyone who reviewed or placed my story or their favorite's or alert's lists._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra has no connection with Naruto or any of its characters. Evidence lies in Naruto's orange jumpsuit._

_**"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."**_

_**-Anonymous**_

* * *

A hard jolt from the cart woke Naruto from a scattered dream that he couldn't remember a second later. He was surprised that he had been able to fall asleep with everything that had happened. Just the thought of the murder of the Hokage made bile rise in Naruto's mouth. He looked around at the forms of the others.

Sasuke had curled himself into a little ball on his side, but it looked somewhat painful since he had curled into Neji's feet. Neji had curled around with his back to Sasuke, but had a tendency to kick. Sakura was between Naruto and Sai. She had managed to fell asleep sitting up, and didn't notice that Sai's head was on her lap. Hinata was on Neji's other side, and she was sleeping on top of him. Naruto had managed to lean back in the cart without making a lot of noise. He was glad that none of them snored.

Naruto still did not quite believe they had managed to pull it off. Every time the two men, who were named Daisuke and Shin, stopped for some reason, usually to complain, Naruto would start to get a feeling of terror in his stomach that someone had come after them. Nothing ever happened, and it seemed like they had escaped without anyone being the wiser.

Daisuke and Shin had been traveling all night, and their stowaways had no time to speak. There were plenty of things that Naruto really wanted to ask, and from the looks that they were all given one another, especially to Sai, they all had questions that they wanted answered.

Right now there was nothing that could be done. Naruto tried to ease himself into a comfortable position but it was hard when Sakura moved and her elbow was crushing Naruto's side.

It was then that he noticed that they weren't moving.

"Time to turn in for the night," Daisuke, the younger of the two, said with a loud yawn.

"More like turn in for the day," Shin pointed out.

Naruto could tell that Daisuke had shrugged.

"Same difference,"

There was the sound of people moving around and setting something up. For about ten minutes everything was silent. Naruto looked at the others again. Sasuke had opened his eyes and Sai was sitting up. The others looked like they were still asleep. The three stared at one another for ten more minutes until they heard the grinding sound of someone snoring.

Hinata's white eyes were opened and she looked around at the others. Neji disturbed at the motion twitched slightly and sat up.

"Mommy…" Sakura mumbled sleepily, "I had a bad dream…"

"No, you didn't," Sasuke contradicted.

Sakura opened her eyes and stared at the faces around her. She looked like she was going to cry, but controlled herself.

"Well," Neji said, "I guess it's time to answer some questions."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, "like who the heck is Danzo."

"A-and the ANBU who helped us," Hinata added.

"And what we're going to do," Sasuke muttered.

"First thing's first," Naruto said, turning to Sai, "Who is Danzo?"

"He is the leader of ROOT, a select branch of ANBU. He was the Sandaime Hokage's rival since before he was elected, and remained against his teachings," Sai repeated all the information in the well practiced, yet impartial voice of someone reciting a lesson that they had learned by heart, "He carefully selected people who were orphans or who had the correct mindset to teach them to be superior ninja. Also, he has a strict policy of secrecy, no one in ROOT knows everyone else in ROOT, making it impossible for potential spies to completely destroy the organization. He wishes to reform Konoha into a powerful nation that the world with respect and fear."

Sasuke was looking at him with total suspicion.

"So, what's to keep you from going back telling your boss just where we are when we're not looking?" he asked, his eyes narrowed.

"It would be bad for me to do such a thing," Sai said, that strange smile on his face again, "Danzo-sama would kill me if he knew what I had seen, even if I turned you in to him as well. I have no choice but to follow you."

"I-is your name really Sai?" Hinata asked suddenly.

Naruto looked at her in surprise. Why would he lie about that?

"No, I don't have a name," Sai replied, still with that smile, "But I would like it if you called me that. I read it in a book."

"A-alright…" Hinata mumbled.

There was a silence that was only broken by the sound of loud snores coming from outside. Neji looked over to Sasuke, his white eyes narrowed slightly.

"Who was the ANBU, Uchiha," he asked, "You definitely knew him."

Sasuke looked somewhat annoyed at being called by his family name, but didn't say anything about it. Naruto guessed that there was some sort of rivalry between the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans, and vaguely remembered hearing a young Uchiha grumbling to his friend about 'stupid clan one-upmanship' at a restaurant before he was noticed and kicked out. He didn't really care all that much though.

"My brother, Itachi," Sasuke said after a moment, "I don't know why he didn't report us though. He's been really quiet lately, and only been talking to Shishui and me."

"Maybe he's fed up with the clan," Naruto suggested.

"Why would he be?" Sasuke spat, "everyone worships him!"

"Or maybe he just wanted to get rid of you," Neji muttered, "You could have replaced him."

Sasuke laughed softly at that, a hard cold laugh that didn't suit someone his age. He sounded ten years older.

"That would require my parents to notice that I exist," he whispered.

After another drawn out silence which no one knew what to say to break it, Naruto spoke up.

"So we know that this guy is your brother, he's really quiet, an ANBU, and he let us get out, but other then that, we don't know anything,"

There was a general assent.

"Now what do we do?" Sakura asked speaking up for the first time since she had woken.

"Split up when we reach a town," Sasuke suggested.

"That's stupid," Naruto muttered, "We should stay together. There are more of us, so we'll be able to take care of each other."

Sasuke's eyes flashed.

"Who died and made you the leader?"

"The Old Man," Naruto shot back, but then quieted.

Everyone was glaring at him for mentioning the Hokage, and even Naruto knew that he had gone to for.

"…Sorry…" Naruto said quietly, "I'm…not used to talking to people…I'm used to yelling things a lot…so I say things that…maybe I shouldn't…"

"What kind of an excuse is that?" Neji asked, looking annoyed.

Sasuke didn't join in. He was looking at Naruto strangely.

"Why?" he asked.

"N-naruto-kun lives alone," Hinata told Sasuke, like she had told Neji, "I-I don't think that most of the adults like him very much. I've o-only seen Iruka-sensei and…him…ever treat him well."

Sasuke blinked once. He had never really cared about the lives of other people, and the thought that someone else was suffering was a new thought to him. One he didn't really like.

"Why?" Sakura asked her curiosity was obvious, "he seems nice…I like him."

Hinata flushed a deep crimson.

Naruto shrugged, he was smiling again.

"It doesn't matter. We're all out, and I think we should stay together," he spoke like nothing had happened.

"I agree," Sai said, "It would be better for us."

"Fine," Sasuke said, looking away.

Sakura nodded.

Neji didn't look too happy, but he noticed Hinata's hopeful look, and nodded his assent.

"So we're going to stay together," he muttered, "and what?"

They all looked at each other.

"…find a place to hide the scrolls?" Sakura suggested.

"I have a better idea," Sasuke said, his eyes on the scrolls, "We have to learn to defend ourselves…so why not learn the jutsus?"

"B-but we're just Academy Students," Hinata pointed out.

"Sasuke's right," Neji said, "we're completely defenseless now."

"B-but," Hinata started.

"It's ok, Hinata-chan," Naruto said, not noticing the blush that accompanied his use of the honorific, "We have to protect this stuff, but no one said anything about not learning it. Besides, how can we protect them if we can't fight?"

A-alright," Hinata mumbled.

* * *

Iruka Umino was worried by four-thirty.

Although the Hokage had been assassinated, there had been class at the Academy that day. Mostly because doing things like nothing was wrong would keep the populace from a general panic. Also, most of the adult civilians as well as the ninja, from genin on up, had been summoned to a hearing. Parents wanted their children under the protection of Chuunin in a time of crisis, particularly when they weren't around to protect them. Some weren't there like the Hyuuga girl and boy and the Uchiha, but that was, Iruka assumed, because their parents didn't want it out of the house.

Yet it wasn't the children he was worried about, or the meeting.

It was a specific loud, blond boy that had made him look at the clock every so often and bite his lip.

He knew that Naruto would sometimes skip class for some reason, but he would always come and give some sort of excuse. Iruka didn't always know why Naruto really skipped, and sometimes he wondered if it had to do with some of the accidents that happened every so often around him.

This time was different. Naruto was sometimes thoughtless, and like all very young ninja children seemed to think that he was invincible. Also, the Hokage was one of the few who was kind to the boy. It was completely in Naruto's character to run off and try to avenge the Hokage himself. The idea of Naruto hearing about the murder and running off only to be killed himself made Iruka forget what he was saying. Not like it really mattered. The students were mostly being allowed to play games while they waited for their parents.

He had hated Naruto when he first arrived. Only seeing him as the demon that had killed his parents, but as time had gone on…he had watched the horror that was Naruto's life.

It would have been kinder if they had attacked him. It would have been better if they had flat out treated him like they wanted, because the determined refusal to see that he existed was even worse then hateful words and physical abuse. Naruto went through life ignored. People refused to see him. They acted like he simply didn't exist. Other then the very few who would try to hurt him by 'accident', Konoha had taken the Hokage's order of not speaking of what Naruto was, and changed it to pretending that there was no Naruto.

Iruka had taken Naruto to that ramen shop the first time out of a morbid curiosity. He wanted to know just want the 'demon brat' was really like. Naruto had hugged him so hard around the middle when Iruka invited him that the teacher was sure that he was going to pass out. At dinner Naruto had talking about everything. His dream to be Hokage, his wanting to learn new techniques, his being bored all the time at the lessons, his pranks, how much he couldn't wait to be a ninja and show everyone how wonderful he was, and be acknowledged.

Things had become habit, and quickly, Iruka had realized just how wrong he had been.

Naruto was many things, impetuous being one of the most notable, but he was no demon.

He sighed and tried to force his attention somewhere else.

There was a knock at the door and a tired, sick looking man with heavy dark circles entered.

"Hayate," Iruka said in surprise, "Is the meeting over already."

Hayate shook his head and coughed a little, walking up so that only Iruka could hear him, "No, they're still talking about what's to be done. I'm here to tell you something else. I know that you care a lot for your students so I thought that you should be informed. This last night a girl named Haruno Sakura didn't return home at dinner, and this morning there was a search for her. It seems that not only her but Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuuga Neji, Hyuuga Hinata, and Uzumaki Naruto have vanished. I went to Naruto's house personally, there is no sign of a struggle or of packing. Danzo-sama believes that they were kidnapped by the Rock nin that assassinated the Sandaime."

Iruka didn't hear the rest of what Hayate was saying. He was too busy staring out the window and making the decision that for the second time in his life he was going to get so drunk he could barely stand.

* * *

The trip was long. Naruto was ready to die of boredom by the second day. The schedule ran very simply: they would wake up, read the scroll that they had chosen, listen to Daisuke and Shin talk/complain, and wait until they went to sleep to talk. If someone had to as Hinata put 'use the toilet', they would have to hold it until the two went to sleep. It was risky, but miraculously, they hadn't been discovered. Food and water were not a problem. Apparently, Daisuke and Shin were part of a trading company that sent people to most of the Hidden Villages, and the vessels contained luxury items. Most of them had expensive looking fruits and juices.

After the first talk, the little group would talk not only about future plans but about themselves. They shared little things, their favorite foods, hobbies, and favorite animals.

On the second day, Naruto got up the courage to ask why everyone had been out at the playground that night. Surprisingly, this time even Sasuke and Neji answered. Hinata and Neji had been disowned from their clan, Sasuke had run away, Sakura had been crying because all of the girls at the playground had made fun of her forehead and she lost track of time, Naruto was just their because he was bored, and Sai had wanted to clear his head after hearing about his brother's death and had walked in the right direction.

Strangely enough, in two days, the beginnings of friendships were starting to be visible. Sasuke and Naruto, although they were polar opposites, were showing the signs of becoming best friends, and Sakura and Hinata were starting to put their heads together and whisper a lot. Sai and Neji and started to tolerate one another, and they all were starting to accept each other without insults. The hushed fighting of the first night was not repeated. At first because they felt that they would have to work together to survive, and later because they were beginning to genuinely like one another.

The landscape was starting to change rapidly from forest to field and from field to desert. Sai said that it looked like they were headed to Suna.

Naruto had heard some people occasionally talking about the Hidden Sand. They were supposed to the allies of Konoha, but they were warlike and many people didn't trust them as far as they could throw them. He didn't know much more then that though. Naruto wished that he could have been able to watch the scenery a little more. He had never been out of Konoha and he felt like he was missing something. Still, he read his scroll and bottled up his feelings.

The Scroll of Sealing was old and very complex. Strangely, Naruto seemed to have a talent for learning difficult techniques, while the simple ones that most children his age knew, like the simple henge or bushin, escaped him. For some reason, the ideas of the Scroll of Seals just made sense to him. Naruto couldn't wait for a chance to see if he was able to use the techniques.

It was afternoon on the fifth day when they pulled into Suna. Naruto and the others had just started to wonder what would happen when the cart was checked when they head the sound of Daisuke's voice.

"Here's the regular shipment," he sounded cheerful.

"Yeah, you're Daisuke Ueda right? Satoshi here thinks your sister in Iwa's a real beauty," a guard said, he sounded like he was bored and wasn't really thinking about what he was saying.

"How would you know that?" Daisuke's voice had become suspicious.

"Uh..." the guard sounded a little panicky, "move along!"

The cart began to move again, "I'm going to have to have a talk with Saya," Daisuke was muttering.

Naruto and the others stared at each other in shocked joy. The had managed to escape capture twice. There triumphs were starting to make Naruto a little over confident. Obviously there was a higher deity up there who liked them.

When the cart stopped and Daisuke and Shin wandered off for their first drink, the six children cautiously slipped out of the cart. Naruto got his first look at another hidden village.

Suna was not at all like Konoha. The buildings were mostly a uniform tan color and a people mostly wore off white robes. The sandstone buildings had a forbidding look and the clear sky seemed empty somehow, yet the shops and the noise of the people was the same as home. The group's Konoha clothes stood out vividly in the sea of browns and whites, yet few people looked at the little group as they passed. They were used to the children of wealthy merchants milling around without supervision, and these children seemed no different then most.

"What should we do now?" Sakura asked, looking around at the buildings.

"I don't know," Naruto admitted, "has anyone been here before?"

There was a small chorus of 'no's, and Neji began to look thoughtful.

"Maybe we should split up for now and see if we can find somewhere to stay," he suggested, "there should be a playground around here somewhere. We should meet there at sunset and compare what we've found."

"B-but what if someone takes one of us," Hinata pointed out.

"Nothing will happen," Naruto assured her, "Who would want to kidnap us?"

Naruto had been alone all of his life, and he didn't understand what people were so worried about with kidnappings. He had never had to worry about a thing and he had always run around unattended.

"Yeah, we'll be fine," Sasuke agreed, "what kind of ninja village would this be if their ANBU let us get kidnapped in broad daylight."

And so six children went running in different directions.

Naruto wondered down the road, enjoying himself tremendously. The excitement of the new city was getting to him. The new sights, people, and feelings were enough to make Naruto forget about everything that had happened, but the weight of the scroll tied to his back with some rope that they had found in a corner of the cart brought his mind back. He kept walking and looking around. So far he didn't see anything that looked like a good place to hole up for the night.

For a moment when they first got there, Naruto had had thoughts about staying there permanently, but walking around Suna told Naruto that there was no way they would be able to stay. They would have to leave as soon as possible.

Naruto noticed that he was reaching a break in the wall of buildings, and he walked faster. It was a large patch of sand with some playground equipment scattered around. Some kids were running around with a soccer ball, and they didn't seem to see the new comer.

Naruto was considering continuing on, but his mind was made up for him when one of the kids kicked the ball so that it flew directly at Naruto's head. With a startled yell, Naruto tried to kick it back.

He felt his foot connect with the ball, and saw it shoot away from him. Naruto stood in shock that he had been able to kick it away. The last time when Kiba had done that, Naruto had opened his eyes to find himself flat on his back with a spectacular looking bruise on his forehead. Did just reading a scroll have that much affect?

Naruto's triumph was short lived. He had somehow managed to kick the ball so that it landed on top of a ledge. The group who had been playing with it all surrounded Naruto.

"Hey, you," the leader said indignantly, "what do ya think that your doing, kicking our ball up there!"

"I didn't do it on purpose," Naruto shot back, "It was going to knock my head off!"

"Well, you kicked it, so you have to get it," one of the kids, a girl, said.

"What? You think I can fly?" Naruto muttered, walking over so that he could see the cliff. There was no way that Naruto was going to be able to climb that thing.

Naruto stood there, with the group watching him, waiting for some brilliant idea to come to him. There was no way that he was going to get out of this without the ball. Naruto wished that he could do that kage bushin thing that he had been reading about so that he could make a ladder of Narutos to climb, but he didn't think he could.

"Come on," he growled at the soccer ball, "Come down."

As to be expected, the soccer ball did nothing.

But the ground around the soccer ball began to move. A small section of the sand, with the ball, began to float down right in front of Naruto's eyes. It slowly descended until it was caught by a small boy around Naruto's age that he hadn't noticed had walked up. He was shorter then Naruto, with messy dark red hair and shockingly light blue eyes that had black rings around them.

He looked at Naruto shyly and held up the ball.

"Here…"

"Thanks," Naruto said walking up and talking it with a large grin.

The boy's eyes widened in shock that someone would actually come up and take it.

He turned around to give the ball back to the others when he noticed that they had all backed up and were looking at the newcomer with terror.

"It's Gaara," the leader said, his eyes looking like they were going to pop out of his head, "run!"

Naruto stared as the group ran off, and looked at Gaara. He was looking at Naruto like he was preparing himself for something.

"What's with them?" Naruto asked shaking his head, "and what am I supposed to do with this ball?"

Gaara blinked once, "…There's afraid of me…" he mumbled with his head down, "Because…of my sand…"

It was Naruto's turn to blink, "That's stupid," he said, losing interest in the other kids and tossing the ball over his shoulder, "what happened to you eyes, did you get hit by the soccer ball. I did once, but it only hit me in the forehead. I'm Uzumaki Naruto by the way!"

Gaara looked like he was not at all sure what to do.

"My name is Gaara," he told Naruto after a moment where he figured out that Naruto probably wanted to know his name, "I've always had these things around my eyes…"

"Oh, their like my whiskers," Naruto said, pointing to them, "I asked Iruka-sensei, he's my sensei back home, what they were, and he said that they were called birthmarks. I've never seen someone else with 'em before though."

Gaara was still half staring at Naruto.

"A-aren't you afraid of me?" He asked tentatively.

"No," Naruto replied blankly, "you're not scary."

"C-can we be friends?" Gaara shut his eyes tightly, waiting for the refusal he was sure would come.

"Yeah," Naruto said, looking confused, no one had ever asked him to be friends before. Mostly he just latched on to people and harassed them to play with him. Sasuke, Hinata, Sai, Neji, and Sakura were the first people that he had ever though of as friends, but they had never said as much. It was just understood between them, "and I'll show you my other friends, you'll really like them!"

"Really?" Gaara asked.

"Yeah, Sasuke acts like a bit of a jerk, but once you get past that, he's cool. Sai's kind of weird, but I think he's ok, and the more you talk to him, the more normal he gets. Hinata's really shy…but she's nice. Sakura's cute, but she's really shy too. Neji's kind of like Sasuke, but he's more quiet."

Gaara listened with interest as Naruto described his friends. He had never spoken to anyone his own age. The only person who had been nice to him before this was Yashamaru, but this was different. Yashamaru was always nice to him, but this Naruto was more then nice. He was fun.

* * *

The blonde man named Yashamaru watched the Kazekage's youngest son and the strange boy. He had never seen him before and his clothes were those of Konoha. Was he a merchant's son? He had received no word about it from the Kazekage, and from what he had heard, Konoha was going to be at war with Iwa shortly.

What was this kid doing here?

Yashamaru thought about jumping down and breaking things up, but decided against it for now. He would wait until this get became afraid of Gaara and jump down to play the loving uncle.

It would only be a matter of time.

In the mean time, perhaps he should look at the letter that Danzo, the new Hokage, had sent to the Kazekage. He had asked them to be on the lookout for a group of children, and this might be one of them.

* * *

Danzo had no intention of looking for the children who had run off even if one of them happened to be his subordinate. They had all run away at the perfect time. Things were not quite as easy as Danzo had thought. People had grown accustomed to peace and didn't want to break it, even to avenge the assassination.

The children had been a gift. Three of them even came from prestigious clans, one was just a local girl, but the other, Uzumaki, was even better then the first three. To think that the demon vessel had gone missing. It was prefect. Konoha would be terrified that he was in enemy hands. There was a chance that he would be turned into a weapon against them. Now they had to go to war, if only to find get the Uzumaki back.

Danzo smiled thinly. As three of the ROOT members entered. There was no sign of the children, the only people to leave Konoha that night had been a pair of civilians with that packing company that had been trading with everyone. They had been checked by Uchiha Itachi. While he had no dealings with the prodigy himself, he knew that as an ANBU he would have noticed a small group of children.

Vaguely he wondered just how they had managed to do it. Sai would have been no use to him, since the boy knew practically nothing about such things, and he doubted that they would have been smart enough to use the sewers…

It didn't matter, he had ordered his forces to kill the children if they found them, and to hide the body of Uzumaki Naruto. There was no way that Danzo would let go of an opportunity that had fallen into his lap at such an opportune moment.

Konoha was going to war.

* * *

Gaara didn't have a clue where Naruto and the others could stay. After Naruto was sure he could trust Gaara he had asked, but Gaara hadn't known anywhere. Although he lived in Suna, Naruto learned that he was seldom anywhere other then the playground or his house. Naruto was disappointed. He had hoped that meeting someone from the village would help move his search along.

It was starting to get dark, and Naruto was beginning to worry about the others. He hoped that nothing had happened to them. He hadn't even thought about it before, but now the idea that they could get kidnapped didn't seem quite as farfetched as it had earlier.

When Naruto saw the form of Hinata walking towards them, he had felt better. Gaara drew back a little, but Naruto called Hinata over. She stopped when she saw Gaara, but continued after a moment's pause.

"W-who's he?" she asked when she had walked up.

"This is Gaara," Naruto introduced, "he lives around here. I was asking him if he knew where we could stay. Did you find anything?"

"N-no," Hinata sighed, "T-there was nothing."

"Crud," Naruto mumbled.

"You could stay with me," Gaara suggested suddenly.

"What?" Naruto asked, "but there are six of us. You're parents won't be too happy…"

"I don't live with my father," Gaara said smiling somewhat, "I live with my uncle, Yashamaru. I don't think he'll mind."

"R-really?"

Further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Neji, Sai, Sasuke, and Sakura, who had met up with each other earlier. They were somewhat annoyed when Naruto admitted that he had mostly spent his time talking with Gaara instead of looking for a place to stay, but they were a little pacified when Naruto told them about Gaara's offer.

There was an unspoken agreement between all of them that they would leave Suna the next day. There was no place for them to live, and their ANBU had seemed slightly suspicious of them. Naruto hadn't noticed, but Sasuke and Neji had.

Both of them had learned more from living with their families then Naruto had, and both knew that the ninja shouldn't be quite so active.

Something was wrong.

Sasuke had a feeling that it was that Danzo creep. He had said that Konoha was going to go to war because of the 'assassination by Rock nins', but he for some reason hadn't thought about how long that would take. Naturally, Suna would be sent a message. Naturally, they would be preparing for war. They would be expected to aid their ally in battle, but they way that they had been looked at had put the boy on edge.

Itachi had told him about Suna once. He had said that it was a dangerous place, and that even though the Sand nin were technically allied with Konoha, Suna had a history of betrayal and tyrant leaders. The currant Kazekage had even done something to his own son, but Sasuke didn't know what it was. All he knew was the Itachi had said that it was a horrific thing to do to any human, let alone a child.

They were all introduced to Gaara, who seemed to me overwhelmed by all the people talking around him. Naruto was telling the others about what had happened earlier, adding tremendous detail and turning his kick into some great ninja art. The boys, other then Sai, were looking skeptical, and Sakura was looking thoughtful, Hinata and Sai both seemed to believe it.

"-and then the ball was surrounded by all this sand and floated down to Gaara here." Naruto finished.

"And?" Sasuke asked.

"We talked and stuff,"

"Dobe,"

"Shut up,"

"Both of you shut up," Neji mumbled, "You're giving everyone a headache."

"Actually, I find it entertaining to watch," Sai supplied.

"Ano," Hinata broke in, "W-what about Gaara-kun's offer?"

"I'm all for it," Naruto said.

Sasuke nodded.

"It's our only choice," Sai said with a smile.

"I'm ok with it," Sakura smiled at Gaara, who blushed slightly and looked down.

"Me too," Neji agreed.

Hinata nodded.

"I'll tell Yashamaru when he comes," Gaara said, smiling widely for the first time in his life.

There were six people who wanted to come to his house. He didn't know what people did at each other's houses, but he had heard that friends would stay over. They seemed to think it was fun, and Gaara wanted to be with his new friends some more. The thought that they weren't from Suna had occurred to him, but the idea that they would have to leave hadn't. For Gaara, it was the first time he had ever been with people who liked him, and the idea that they would leave was not something he could conceive of.

"That won't be necessary, Gaara-sama," a soft voice broke everyone from their conversations.

Naruto turned to see a pale, blonde man with bandages over some parts of him. He was smiling slightly, but Naruto got a bad feeling from him.

Naruto lived on his feelings. He had to. If there was someone who he just felt wasn't right, he avoided them. People who didn't feel right would sometimes give incorrect information, lead him to dangerous places, or even, like once, be a spy from another village. Naruto could be fooled, he had been fooled many times before, but he had could sense people's intentions better then most people.

This man had something wrong with him. It wasn't like Danzo where the aura had been faint, but penetrating and somehow more dangerous then anything he had felt before. This was different. It was more obvious, but there was something sick about it at the same time. Naruto had the impression of poison that had been placed in candy, or an exploding tag that was carefully wrapped up like a present.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the man's polite manner.

"Keep your eyes on him," Naruto hissed to Sasuke, who happened to be next to him, "He's bad news."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Well, Gaara-sama, I suppose you'd better show your new friends where we live," Yashamaru said to Gaara.

* * *

Gaara's house was huge. Even Sasuke, Neji, and Hinata, who had lived in large, expensive places all their lives, stared around in an impressed sort of way when they first walked in. They were led to what was probably Gaara's room. It was littered with toys and games, but there was no bed. A small table stood in a corner of the room with only a picture of a young smiling woman on it who looked a lot like Yashamaru.

"Who's this?" Naruto had asked when he had seen it.

"My mother," Gaara told him.

"Where is she?" Sakura had asked curiously.

"…Dead…"

"Oh,"

"N-Neji-niisan and my mother are dead too," Hinara supplied, probably to make Gaara feel a little better.

They had spent about an hour teaching Gaara how to play some of the games in the room. Gaara didn't seem to know how to play anything. He had toys and games, but the only thing he actually seemed to play with was the teddy bear that he constantly held. He didn't really seem to play with that either, he simply held it. Naruto knew a lot of games that he had learned from random children or made up himself. Sai only knew games that were more like training exercises then anything else. Sasuke knew most solitary games, but didn't seem to play in a group much. Neji and Hinata knew the rules for plenty of games, but neither of them seemed to play them very much.

By the time Yashamaru had appeared with dinner, an innocent looking rice dish that was so hot that the boys began a new game of how many grains they could eat without tears coming out of their eyes, Gaara had become the seventh member of their group. He was quiet, and always seemed worried that if he said something wrong, they might not like him anymore, and he was surprisingly even tempered and passive.

The boys were used to rough housing a little, and got the surprise of their lives when Naruto jumped Gaara during a game. Immediately, sand shot up around Gaara and spiked out. Naruto was thrown back and had the wind knocked out of him. When he finally got his breath back, Gaara was apologizing over and over again, and Sasuke and Neji were trying to get him to stop apologizing and tell them how he did that technique.

"That was really painful, but really cool," Naruto said as he sat up, "You have got to teach me how to do it."

"I-I don't know how I do it," Gaara whispered, "I just do…"

Naruto assumed that he was talking about a bloodline limit. He didn't know much about them, but he had heard that they could do things that no one else could.

"Crud," he muttered.

As time went on, one by one, the group began to fall asleep. Each time that happened, Yashamaru would appear out of nowhere, and take them out of the room. Naruto, the last one awake assumed that it was to some bedroom, so when he found that he had been lying in the same spot for about a half hour, too tired to move, but not quite asleep, he only felt slight discomfort at being moved.

"What's wrong with him, Yashamaru?" Gaara was asking.

"Most people need to sleep, Gaara-sama," Yashamaru replied, "He's just tired. Your friend will be fine in the morning."

"Oh," Gaara mumbled, "Goodnight…"

"Goodnight, Gaara-sama,"

Naruto felt himself being taken down a flight of stairs. The grip was a bit harder then he would have liked, and he squirmed a little to show it. The grip tightened around him, making it hard for Naruto to breathe.

"You really brought this on yourself," Yashamaru whispered harshly, "If you had run off like a good little brat, you might have been alive tomorrow, but I doubt it. You see, the new Hokage sent us a message to keep an eye out for you. It would be inconvenient for you to turn up when you're supposed to be kidnapped or dead. I'm not supposed to kill any of you, but if you give me any trouble, the Kazekage will have to settle for your body."

Naruto was starting to struggle wildly, kicking out and failing around to get out of the vice grip Yashamaru had him in. He looked around frantically for a way to get away from him.

He was in a small room with no windows or furniture. Tied up and arranged in a neat row were Sasuke, Neji, Hinata, Sai, and Sakura. All of them were gagged and Neji had blood running down the side of his head, where Yashamaru had had to knock him out. He seemed conscious again and was glaring hatefully at the man.

Naruto started to feel his head getting light, and his awareness ebbing. The whole scene was beginning to take on a dreamlike quality, and his struggles were becoming feebler. A cloudy realization came to him: he was dying. This made him struggle a little harder. The hand over his mouth moved a little, and on instinct, Naruto bit down hard. He was rewarded instantly, by the taste of blood and being let go with a sharp cry.

Naruto didn't know what was happening, it was almost like someone else was controlling his motions. Instead of falling to his hands and knees and gasping for breath, he had somehow managed to twist in such a way where he landed on his feet with his hands together in the form that the scroll he was carrying recommended.

"Kage Bushin no Justu!" The words seemed to come from far away.

One and a half Narutos appeared in a cloud of smoke. The half was the legs and lower body that continued to emanate smoke. Naruto had jumped unto Yashamaru's leg and had sunk his teeth into him again. The other Naruto was hastily untying the others, and the half, which didn't seem to need eyes, was trying to kick Yashamaru in any possible place.

Sasuke was the first up, he quickly started to form a set of seals that was the Uchiha family signature move.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu," Sasuke screamed and breathed out.

A small tongue of flame that probably couldn't have done much more then light a candle, came out of his mouth aimed at the seat of Yashamaru's pants.

Sakura had attached herself to Yashamaru's other leg and was trying to pound her fists into his leg, but hadn't done much.

Sai had taken out a kunai from somewhere and picked his finger, using his own blood he drew something that looked like a cross between and lion, a dog, and a fish. The thing came to life, but did little other then cause more noise and confusion.

Neji and Hinata were both punching and kicking as much as possible, but the blows were badly aimed, and hit Naruto and Sakura as much as Yashamaru.

A joint bite from Naruto and punch from Neji caused Yashamaru to stumble over Sai's lion dog fish thing and fall flat on his back. At the moment the door that Yashamaru had closed and locked was forced open with sand, and the form of Gaara stood in the doorway.

"Uncle Yashamaru, what's-" the question died on his lips when he saw his uncle's face twisted with rage and hatred at the sight of him.

"Well, I suppose there's no hope for it," he snarled, "This is the end."

"Get away from him!" Hinata screamed.

Naruto looked over to her, and noticed for the first time that there was something weird with her eyes, they were glowing white blue in the center. But it wasn't the time to ask questions. Naruto and Sakura scrambled away from him as the exploding tags attached to his body went off.

It seemed for a moment like everything was going in slow motion. Naruto watched the blast coming at him and even had the time to wonder whether anyone would find their blackened bodies when he was suddenly looking at a wall of solid sand.

There was a deafening blast from outside the sand and the ground shock under him. Naruto didn't have the sense to look around to see if the others were alright until the sand slowly descended and allowed him to see the burnt remains of Gaara's house. Gaara was standing, looking shocked, staring at the place where Yashamaru had been, tears were slowly coursing down his face.

Suddenly, his legs gave out and he collapsed to his hands and knees, sobbing quietly. Naruto didn't really notice what he was doing, but he saw the others were doing the same thing. Slowly, they congregated around him Hinata had placed a hand on his shoulder Neji and sat down next to him. Slowly, Gaara was surrounded by frightened children who were trying to give comfort, but had no idea how to give it. Naruto had no idea how long they stayed like that, but after some time, Gaara's crying had stopped.

"We need to get out of here," Sai whispered.

Naruto wanted to kill him.

Gaara jerked at that statement and stared around with wide, frightened eyes.

"Don't leave me alone," he pleaded, madness was glinted on the edge of his eyes. One more push would send his already strained mind over the edge.

"You're coming with us," Naruto said forcefully, "You're going to come with us, and we're all gonna find a place to stay together."

"I am," Gaara said blankly.

"Yes," Sai said, catching onto, what he thought, was Naruto's idea. Gaara was obviously was very powerful, and they needed as many powerful friends as they could get, "everything will be alright."

Sakura nodded, "We're all going to be a family," she promised.

"A…family?" Sasuke asked her, surprised.

Something glinted in her eyes.

"Yeah, a family," she said, louder and more forcefully then she had ever said anything in her life, "Ya got a problem."

Sasuke's eyes widened. For some reason Sakura's sudden mood swing scared him. He nodded quickly.

"I'd like that," Gaara whispered, "I've never had a family."

"Here," Neji said, handing him one of the two scrolls that he, as the eldest, had been carrying, "you can start reading this."

Gaara slowly stood up and took the scroll. He purposely turned his back on the body of his traitorous uncle and to his new family as the stars began to go out and the sky began to show the signs of the new dawn. A blast of wind and sand surrounded seven figures.

When the ANBU arrived, there wasn't a sign of life. Just a little sand that had been picked up by the wind.

* * *

_BLAST YOU KIDS AND YOUR SIX-YEAR-OLD CONVERSATIONS!_

_Ahem…_

_Final Notes: _

_About Sai: Since episode fifty, I know that Sai's brother didn't die until he was older, but for the sake of this story, let's just say that he died earlier. Also, I know he doesn't talk much, but there will be more of him later on._

_About the fight scene: That took some time to write. I had to think about how kids would fight. I didn't want them to fight like adults, but I wanted to show that they are all talented._

_Did I move too fast? I was thinking of taking one chapter to introduce each character, but I'm not sure if I should take a little more time. Please tell me. _

_Also, about parings, here are some suggestions that my friend gave me._

_Haku/__Isaribi_

_Kimimaro/Tayuya_

_Konohamaru/Hanabi_

_Iruka/Anko_

_Please review me and tell me what you think. Also, I was thinking, there are going to be some villains who I may make if not good, at least on the same side as my group. Are there any people in particular, or should I just pick and chose to my liking? I would love to hear your feedback._

_Ten reviews get a five more pages or a funny short. Which ever gets more votes._


	3. Part 1: Winter

_Author's Corner: I'm so obsessive over whether or not something is logical. While I'll admit that the idea of a group of little kids surviving in any world without help is illogical, everyone I know who reads this always is telling me that I think too much. Well, I like thinking too much. Since Spring Break is now over, I'm probably going to be updating slower, but I'll do my best. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, or put this on a favorites or alerts lists, but you know…I don't bite…I'd really like it if the ones who put this story on a favorites or alerts would review too…_

_Disclaimer: Pryotra has no connection with Naruto._

_**The only people who think children are carefree are the ones who've forgotten their own childhood.**_

-_**Orson Scott Card**_

* * *

It had been two months since Gaara had joined them.

Gaara's ability to control sand had proved useful. He had teleported them outside Suna the first night, and he could sense where to find water. The frequent sandstorms that raged across the desert ended up being much less of a problem then they should have been. Gaara didn't want his new family to be hurt, and the sand always did what Gaara told it.

Naruto learned many interesting things about Gaara. The most interesting was that the boy was incapable of sleeping. When he asked Gaara why, Gaara had said that the monster would eat his mind if he slept. Naruto had no idea what that meant, but he went along with it. Gaara's hold on sanity was fragile at best, and while he was getting better, he was extremely attached to all of them, and part of Naruto had a vague fear that if someone said something wrong, even as a joke, Gaara would crack.

Thankfully, the others seemed to have guessed that too. Gaara received special treatment, even from the sarcastic Neji, blunt Sasuke, and the brutally honest Sai.

Sai hadn't seemed to have discovered the idea of lying. If he was asked something, he would respond with the complete truth, no matter how rude it was. In fact, Sai was developing the ability to offend anyone. He seemed to think it was funny. He was slowly becoming more open, if only to the others. To everyone else he displayed the same fake smile that hid his utter lack of emotion towards them, but to Naruto, Gaara, Neji, Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata he was slowly beginning to develop emotions. His smiles were becoming genuine, and he seemed to be content with them. Naruto had the strange feeling that he reminded Sai of someone who he never mentioned.

Hinata was slowly losing her stutter. She still sometimes would if she was upset or shocked, but on the whole, the contact with the others was good for her. She still called Neji 'Neji-niisan', and Neji had started to call her imotou. She was slowly changing from a shy, timid girl into a calm girl with an iron will.

Sakura had become more outspoken during the two months. She acted quiet and pleasant most of the time, but every so often, she would act in a way that was completely different from her usual self. This 'Dark Sakura' as Sasuke called her seemed very violent, and had no problem with getting in someone's face and yelling.

Sasuke had mellowed slightly. He didn't act like everyone was beneath him somehow, and he didn't challenge Naruto every time he said something. Sasuke had gained something like a fear of 'Dark Sakura', and they found out quickly that Sasuke had an obsession with tomatoes.

Neji had softened a little. He was starting to show the signs of becoming overprotective towards Hinata, and some thing that had always seemed tight about him had loosened. He smiled every so often and didn't seem so ready to sneer at everything that was said.

Somehow Naruto had become the unofficial leader of the group. He had stopped shouting all the time, but his habit of smiling, and seemly ever present good mood had not faded. It might have been his cheerfulness, combined with his endurance that made him leader.

They sadly weren't able to use Gaara's ability once they left the desert. Gaara didn't seem to have that much control over his ability, and the sand obeyed his desires rather then his commands. After they got out of the desert they had to travel by foot. Since most of them had had some ninja training, they were able to find food, and water. Shelter was more difficult. Normally, they were forced to sleep in the open. The incident in Suna had made them all a little paranoid, and they did their best to sleep under some kind of cover. Even if it was just some bushes, they would stay under them. They normally would stop about an hour before nightfall to work on their scrolls.

They also avoided all Hidden Villages or places were ninja were known to frequent. This limited them to small villages mostly. They would stay in a village for about a week or so, mostly stealing food to live (Sasuke's money had long since run out), and after they known, they would disappear. Naruto sometimes wondered why no one ever pursued them, but dismissed it as due to their abilities of sneaking away.

None of them ever guessed that it was because the villagers pitied them, and took them for orphans who had been forced to live on their own. The children never stole money, and the food they stole was cheap, so the villagers ignored them, and before they were a true nuisance, they vanished and were on the road again.

This night was one of the better ones, even though it was raining. They had managed to find a small cave, and Sasuke had lit a fire for them, he still couldn't produce anything that could do much other then light a fire. The light from it gave them more time then usual to read. Normally, they didn't light fires, since they were easy to see from a distance in the open, but when they had some kind of shelter, they would. It was raining more often then not now. Sai said that it had to do with the fact that they were in Water Country. He told them that since it was fall now, they had better be preparing for winter.

Gaara looked somewhat horrified when they had described winter to him. Coming from Suna, he had never had to worry about cold before. The rest had looked at each other and wondered the same thing.

Will we live to see spring?

They were all in various stages of filth. Their hair was matted, faces dirty, clothes ripped and torn in various places, and there was no hope of stealing anything new. They didn't have any shoes anymore, and Sai was missing the lower half of his shirt because he had had to use it to bandage a wound around his arm.

"We should try to find a warm place to stay for the winter," Neji said thoughtfully.

"Where?" Sasuke sighed, "We can't go back to Suna, and even it we could, I don't think we'd make it before the first snowfall."

"We could try one of the closer countries," suggested Hinata.

"There's nowhere warm and close enough for us to travel, even if we were lucky enough to manage to stow away again," Sai told them.

"Maybe we'll find something in the next village," Naruto said, "We can't do anything right now, so let's train."

Each of them had a scroll that they were trying to learn, and all of them were learning just how difficult it was to learn from a scroll and not a teacher. While there were pictures of the seals, Naruto actually missed Iruka's long dull lectures. Somehow everything had seemed so much simpler back home.

Neji had already buried himself in his scroll about the special techniques of the Hyuuga clan. He had been reading hard ever since they had left Suna. He seemed to be looking for something in particular. Every so often he would look over at his cousin with a puzzled expression. When Naruto had asked him what was up, Neji had shock his head and said nothing. He seemed absorbed in something towards the back of the scroll.

Sai had recently stolen a blank scroll, some ink, and a paint brush. He was reading his scroll, and attempting to bring his drawings to life. Some came out, some didn't.

Hinata was practicing the forms of the Gentle Fist fighting style. She didn't seem to have any natural talent for it, but she was working hard to get past that. She carefully moved through every step and attack in slow motion, but she still couldn't summon up the Chakra necessary. Unlike Neji, whose talent was obvious, Hinata was going to have to learn the hard way.

Naruto was still working on Kage Bushin. He was now able to make five clones before he started to make halves. He was amazed by how little it tired him out. According to his scroll, it was a very difficult technique that even Jonin had trouble with.

Sasuke was working one the scroll that his brother had given him. He still couldn't produce much more then a little tongue of flame, but he was able to do it every single time, and it was slowly getting bigger.

Sakura had learned very quickly that she had surprising Chakra control, but not a whole lot of Chakra itself. She would have to work on that as she grew older, but right now, she was working on trying to channel it right.

"Imotou," Neji said suddenly, "Would you please activate the Byakugen for me?"

"Why?" Hinata asked, "You activated yours long before I did."

"Yes, but there is something I want to see,"

"A-alright," Hinata said in his slight confusion, falling back on her old stutter, "Byakugen!"

Naruto had seem Neji activate the Byakugen before, and knew what it looked like. There were no veins coming out of Hinata's head nor did it seem like her body was somehow stressed from using it. Her eyes were the only things that were different. They were glowing blue-white at the center.

"I thought so," Neji said with a triumphant smirk at his own reasoning.

"What is it?" Naruto asked curiously.

"I've never heard of a Byakugen like that," Sai said, moving closer.

"Hinata has the Tenshi Byakugen," Neji told them, "According to my scroll, it's a secret limit that can't be awoken easily. This scroll doubts that it even exists."

"What is it?" Sasuke repeated Naruto.

"Didn't the Hokage mention that before…" Sakura trailed off.

"Both the Sharingan and the Byakugen have another limit attached to them. According to legend, when Amaterasu and her brother Susanoo fought for supremacy, they held a contest of who could give the best gift to a warrior. Both agreed that the gift would be something that everyone of the bloodline would carry, and the gift would manifest itself in the eyes."

"Susanoo, who valued raw power and the ability to kill anyone who was in his way, created the Sharingan to be the base of his gift, but to those who would go so far as to kill their best friend for power, he bestowed a greater gift: the Mangekyo Sharingan. It had far greater abilities, but a single weakness. Because of the weakness of the human body, the barer of the Mangekyo Sharingan would eventually go blind. Because of the Mangekyo Sharingan, the Uchiha clan was known as cursed."

"Amaterasu, who valued wisdom and knowledge more then power created the Byakugen as her basic gift. It could be used in battle, and the Gentle Fist style was created for that, but the true purpose of the Byakugen was to be able to see everything. However, those who desired power for a reason that Amaterasu herself would be pleased with were granted a blessing: the Tenshi Byakugen. It had a different purpose then the normal Byakugen, it was made to be used to see and manipulate the charka of both the user and their opponent, and it actually puts less strain on the body then the original Byakugen. Also, it is the natural enemy of the Mangekyo Sharingan, since it is impossible to trap one who bares it in a genjutsu. The last thing about it is that it allows the barer to see and remove seals. The Hyuuga family's association with the divine is because of the Tenshi Byakugen."

"What do you mean 'the Uchiha clan is cursed'!" Sasuke said angrily.

"I didn't say they _were_ cursed," Neji corrected, "I said that they reputed to be cursed. Before Konoha, no one wanted anything to do with your family. Now they are extremely respected, but it's a dubious respect among ninja."

"Why?" Sakura asked curiously, "I didn't see that at the academy."

"That's because most people ate your academy will never be actual ninja," Sai told her, "They're just civilians, and the civilians have always worshiped the clans with kekkei genkai. The other ninja have always feared them a little. Particularly since the clans are very secretive and strict."

"They also have a long history of being jerks," Naruto cut in.

"Huh?" Gaara asked.

"My scroll says that the founder of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Madara tried to kill the First Hokage because they disagreed about how Konoha should be run. He was defeated, but he swore to come back. It has his words too: 'I shall return when you fools don't expect it, and I will always been near Konoha, waiting for those who have the potential to join me. They will join, whether they will it or not, for I, who possess the perfect Sharingan, am capable of all things.'"

"That's rather disturbing," Sai said.

"What does he mean by capable of all things?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know," Naruto said, "this scroll doesn't have much about it. It just talked about it for about a paragraph and went on."

Sasuke was quiet and seemed to have retreated into his own thoughts.

There was an awkward silence, until Naruto turned to Hinata, who still had the Tenshi Byakugan activated.

"That's really cool, Hinata," he told her, "I bet you'll get really super strong!"

"It's true too. At least about the stress," Hinata said, "When I activated the normal Byakugen, it always felt like I was straining myself, but this feels really easy," She looked at Naruto and Gaara strangely for a moment, "You both have funny seals on you."

Gaara didn't look surprised.

Naruto looked confused.

"That keeps the monster inside me," Gaara said matter-of-factly, "It wants to get out, so I can't sleep."

"I don't have a seal…do I?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, it's kinda like Gaara-kun's, but it's different. Both of them are keeping something in them, but I can't really see it," Hinata told them.

"Maybe Naruto-kun's is keeping a kekki genkai in his," Sakura suggested.

"That's impossible," Sai said, shaking his head.

"Well, whatever's in there," Neji said, giving Naruto an odd look, "I guess we'll find out one day…"

* * *

Gaara was not the only one who couldn't sleep that night.

Sasuke was curled up and his eyes were closed, but sleep didn't come. His mind continued to linger on the words of Uchiha Madara. Was the Uchiha clan truly cursed?

He had always been told that the Uchiha were superior to everyone. He had always somehow believed that because of his bloodline he was assured to be great. Suddenly, everything he had been taught was said to be a lie. The Sharingan was a curse, a blot of the face of the earth. It was made only for power, and for those who couldn't care less about anything but power.

Was that really true?

Was the Mangekyo Sharingan the real secret limit? Did you really have to kill your best friend to get it?

Sasuke turned over and received a kick from Neji. Someone was going to murder that guy one day…

Were the Uchiha cursed? Was it impossible to use the Sharingan for anything good?

The Sharingan was power, Sasuke reasoned. Power was neither good or evil, it simply was. If the Mangekyo Sharingan existed then that was evil, since was only obtained through cold blooded murder. The Sharingan was awakened in battle, when the user's life was in danger. It was nothing or less more then a weapon, but, an unpleasant voice in him reminded, weapons could be used to defend, or to murder, but in the end their purpose was the same. The Sharingan was made to kill.

Was he cursed?

Would he become like his father, like the elders of the clan, no matter what he did?

Sasuke didn't know it, but he was taking the first step towards a future decision.

* * *

The cold air actually hurt as Naruto breathed too fast. His feet bare pounded the snow covered ground, and occasionally he skidded a little on the ice that covered parts of the street. Naruto's breath hung in the fringed air as he breathed and mentally, he was annoyed the he lost the heat every time he breathed.

"Get back here!" the angry voice of the vender reached his ears.

'Yeah,' Naruto thought savagely, 'like I'm going to stop and let you beat the snot out of me.'

The two large loafs of bread were awkward to carry, and in addition to the scroll tied to his back, he was having trouble moving with the same agility as usual.

Why couldn't the man have chased after one of the Kage Bushin?

The group had settled in a village near the border of Water Country and closer to Kirigakure then Sai would have liked. They tried to move from village to village as much as they could, but things had gotten harder as the weather grew colder. Less people traveled in the winter, and those that did usually didn't have convenient places to stowaway.

This village wasn't quite so pleasant about their being there as others had been. They had plenty of starving children running around without seven more to add to the problem. They probably would have run them out of town, if they could have caught them. Thankfully, though learning their jutsus and since they had started sparing with each other to stay warm, they will too good at running away to be caught. There were no ninja in that village, if there had been, all of them would have been caught. Sai said that it had to do with the fact that Kirigakure and the Water Daimyo were having some sort of disagreement, and both fractions were very distrustful of on another.

Naruto turned a tight corner and made another Kage Bushin to look like it was going straight, hopefully, the man would chase the clone for a while. He didn't have the usual backup if something went wrong.

It seemed that everyone but Gaara and him were sick. It was strange, since Gaara had never been exposed to cold air like this before, but he didn't show any signs of illness. The others were bad and getting worse. Sasuke and Hinata both had high fevers, Sakura complained that she felt like there was a knife in her throat. Sai could barely keep any food down. Neji was showing signs of the chicken pox. Naruto and Gaara took turns sneaking form the alleys that they had made their hiding place and stealing food or rummaging through trash. The other would stay where they were hidden and try to keep Sasuke's fire from going out.

Naruto wondered sometimes if they would all live through the winter.

He gritted his teeth at the thought and ran faster.

Finally, he made it to a small alley that was almost invisible because of the buildings and the trash around it. He paused for a moment, but didn't hear his pursuer's footsteps anywhere. Apparently he had gone after the Kage Bushin, which would probably disappear after making some form of hostile gesture at the vender. Naruto sighed in relief and darted down the alley.

There was a large heap of snow and trash in one corner that hid the little bubble of sand that Gaara had managed to make for them. Naruto moved a rotting sofa cushion to show a hole large enough for him to crawl through.

Trying not to get the loaves any more dirty then necessary, Naruto crawled through and reached our to put the cushion back. Inside, it was a small dome that was lit only by the fire in the center of the room. Around the fire, everyone lay wrapped in ratty, ragged looking blankets. Gaara was the only one who looked awake. He had a small pile of garbage net to him that looked flammable which he would throw into the fire when he thought it got too low. Since Gaara liked heat, it was a cheerful blaze.

It had been a real problem figuring out just how to get a fire in there. The first time that they had tried to light a fire since it had created a ton of smoke and forced Gaara to make a hole in the roof so that they could breathe. Then there had been the problem of the hole letting too much cold air in. It was hard, since if there wasn't enough of a chimney, the smoke would suffocate them, but if it was too large, they would get even sicker. Gaara finally managed a hole that would let enough smoke out to be livable and small enough not to let too much cold air in.

"How are they?" Naruto asked.

"Neji feels warm now…and Sai hasn't woken up," Gaara mumbled.

Naruto sighed and showed him the two loaves of bread.

"I got food," he said simply.

Naruto went around to everyone, shaking them awake and giving them a piece of bread.

"I'm so cold," moaned Sasuke when Naruto woke him.

Naruto had moved him closer to the fire and given him the bread.

Sai blearily looked around and accepted the bread without saying anything.

"Are we going to die?" Hinata asked calmly.

"No," Naruto assured them, "We're all going to make it through the winter. You're going to get better. No matter what, we're all going to make it through the winter together."

They were quiet as they ate their bread. Mostly because they were too weak to talk and eat at the same time. Naruto tried to sound cheerful as he talked to them all, only Gaara really joined in. They others appreciated the mindless chatter, and Naruto knew it.

Naruto didn't eat his piece of bread. He was too worried and too upset. He wanted to believe the words he had just said, but so far, from the look of things, Naruto and Gaara were going to be the only ones who saw spring.

"I'm going to get some more firewood," Naruto said getting up and putting the piece of bread in his pocket, "Gaara, can you stay here?"

Gaara nodded.

They called the garbage that they fed the fire with firewood, even though it was anything but. Mostly it was just pieces of paper.

Naruto crawled out the hole and went back into the cold evening.

It was rabidly getting dark, and Naruto hugged himself as he walked.

What would happen if he or Gaara got sick? How would they get food?

Naruto had never been rich. There was a good reason why he ate so much ramen. It was the cheapest food in existence that had some flavor to it. Sometimes he would spend too much money and have to miss quite a few meals. He was no stranger to hunger, but this was different. He had always known that if he really needed something he could go to the Old Man. Now, all his thoughts were on their next meal, and he had no idea when he would eat again.

Naruto wasn't really paying attention to where he was going, and didn't even notice the falling snow. He was too busy thinking about what to do. He didn't notice the large dog sleeping in part of the alley until he had already stepped on it.

There was an angry yelp of pain and Naruto found himself staring at an impressive looking set of very sharp teeth.

Naruto did the only thing that came to his mind at that moment. He ran like he had never run before with the dog hot on his tail. Kage Bushin didn't work on dogs since the false Naruto's didn't smell, so Naruto was unable to use his usual means of escape. When he was little he had watched a dog chasing a cat and noticed how the dog couldn't catch it because of the sharp turns that it would make, now he was the one trying to make sharp turns.

Already Naruto was starting to feel tired, and his breath was starting to burn in his lungs. He was vaguely aware that the dog was beginning to gain on him, and that his legs were feeling heavy. He dashed past what might have been another person and darted into a side alley.

There was a startled yelp, and Naruto turned around in time to see the dog slide past the alley entrance on a sheet of ice that hadn't been there before. Naruto stood in shock for a moment, catching his breath, when he noticed that someone was running towards him.

It was a boy about three years older then him. He was just as filthy, hungry looking, and cold as Naruto and the rest. His dark hair was matted and stuck out at odd angles. He was wearing a baggy, oversized white shirt that was in far better shape then his, with a blank collar around his neck.

"Are you alright?" he asked, leaning over to check Naruto.

"Yeah," he said with a grin, "that thing nearly had me though. Did you see how that dog got on that ice? I didn't see any ice before. What happened?"

"I…" the boy started, "I guess you were just lucky. It was there, but somehow you didn't trip."

"Well, at least that's lucky," Naruto sighed, "Oh, I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"I'm Akiyama Haku," Haku said politely, "What were you doing out here Naruto-kun?"

"I'm looking for stuff to put in a fire," Naruto told him, "You see, my friend made a fire, but we have to make sure it won't go out, since he might not be able to make another one."

"You're with friends?" Haku asked, he was surprised, he would have thought Naruto would have been all alone. A twinge of disappointment hit him. He had vaguely been hoping to help out this kid, but once again, his existence wasn't necessary.

"Yeah," Naruto trailed off and then looked up, "Do you know any doctors?"

Haku blinked at the question and shook his head.

"Oh," Naruto sounded a bit disappointed.

"Why?"

"I…My friends need help," Naruto told him quickly after pausing for a moment and deciding that he needed to talk to someone, "They're sick, and I think they might die. Only me and one other person are healthy, and it keeps getting colder."

"Can I see your friends," Haku asked, "I know a little about medicine."

He seemed surprisingly eager to help out.

"Really?" Naruto looked hopefully up at him.

"Yes," Haku nodded, "My mother taught me…"

He trailed off and looked at the ground, but Naruto had already grabbed his arm and was proceeding to lead him to their little hut.

Haku found himself being dragged along by Naruto. He didn't have any real objection to going, after all, he had been the one to involve himself by making that ice. He had wanted to have someone, anyone, to talk to…

Naruto led Haku to a small mound of garbage, only to show him the hole hidden behind the cushion. Haku had to admit that for a group that couldn't be older then seven, this was a very impressive feat. He hadn't thought of it, but when he noticed the sand, he knew that it wouldn't have mattered if he did.

He looked around at the huddled forms of the other children and the red haired boy who was the only one awake.

"This is Haku, Gaara, he's says he knows stuff about medicine," Naruto told him, "This is Gaara, Haku."

Gaara smiled a little, but his eyes fell back on the sleeping figures of the others.

"I got some firewood too," Naruto said, "How are they?"

"Sakura woke up," Gaara told him, "She got upset that you went out again. She thinks you're going to get sick too."

"Nah, no sickness would dare attack the great Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto said, sounding more confident then he looked.

Haku ignored the boasting, and came to the conclusion that Naruto was trying to keep his friend's spirits up. Things looked pretty bad for this little group. It was strange, he thought, how there were so many of them. Normally, street children didn't team up like this. They would sometimes make temporary alliances, but they fought over every scrap of food that they got their hands on. Haku had tried on several occasions to team up with other kids who lived like him, but it had never worked.

Naruto pointed at the sleeping forms of the other children.

"Is there a way we can help?" Naruto asked him.

Haku leaned over all of them in turn. Remembering what his mother told him, he put a hand on each of their foreheads in turn, felt Sakura's throat for swollen glands, and tried to get Sai to stay away long enough to ask him how he felt.

"They're almost at a point where the only thing that would help is hospitalization," Haku told him, "They need medical herbs. Badly."

"Where are some?" Naruto asked.

"Hospital," Gaara say suddenly, "My sister once got really sick and they had to get special herbs from the hospital greenhouse to help her."

Naruto and Haku looked at Gaara and at eachother.

"There's a hospital near that marketplace. I bet it has some!" Naruto exclaimed and turned to Haku, "Gaara, you could use your sand to help Haku and I up, and we could steal the herbs!" Naruto paused and looked at Haku a little embarrassed, "That is…if you want to help us…"

"I'll help," Haku told him, "I know the herbs that would work best. I think that they could have them, they're not that rare."

Haku was surprised that things were moving so fast, but he knew just why he was helping them out. For the first time since his mother's murder, he had seen people who were like him. Each and every one of them had looked at him, and he had seen that they all had the same eyes as his.

Eyes that were determined to prove their existence, and force others to acknowledge it.

* * *

It was late by the time that the three made it to the hospital. They had had to make sure that the fire had enough fuel to burn for a hour or so while they were gone, and they had managed to get lost quite a few times. None of them were that familiar with the town, so occasionally, a wrong turn was taken. Naruto barely had any sense of direction, Haku and Gaara fared slightly better, but they would sometimes get confused by the side alleys.

The other problem was that there were a few Mist nin that sometimes partrolled at night, and while they wouldn't really catch the notice of them, they were afraid of being seen and later associated with the soon to be robbery. There were several near misses, and once, when a particularly fearsome looking ninja with a large sword and most of his face covered was walking past the alley they were hiding in, Haku took a step back that nearly sent him crashing into a garbage can.

Naruto stared up at the hospital, praying that what ever medical herbs were needed to help his friends were there.

"Ok, Gaara, do you think you can do it?" Naruto asked.

Naruto had explained to Haku on the way that Gaara could manipulate sand. Haku had been quiet, almost like he was thinking of something. Naruto hoped that Haku wasn't going to show any fear of him.

Gaara had improved considerably over the few months. He didn't seem quite so afraid that at one misstep they would all hate him. He also seemed to be more comfortable with his control over sand. Because he was with people who didn't fear him, he started to try to use the sand at will. He was slowly getting better and better. Gaara had started to use the sand to pick things up a while ago, but he had never tried to do that to a person before tonight.

"I think so," Gaara said, "If anything goes wrong, I should have time to put you back down."

"Let's hope so," Haku found himself saying.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "Gaara, promise me something."

"What?"

"If there's a chance that you're losing control…put us down…"

Gaara, if anything, looked more nervous at that request.

"I'll try…" he mumbled.

"Ok," Naruto said, "let's go,"

Gaara closed his eyes and concentrated. Thankfully, they had learned that to Gaara's ability, all dirt was sand. There was plenty of dirt around this village, so Gaara didn't have to strain too much as he began to make the dirt around Naruto and Haku's feet congeal around their feet and slowly lift them up. Naruto felt nervous and refused to look down as the ground slowly grew further and further away from him. He had the feeling that if he did look, he would probably start begging Gaara to put him back down.

The hospital roof grew closer and closer. Just to keep his mind off of the thought of the ground and just how much it would hurt to fall from that height, he tried to remember what Haku had told him.

The hospital would have the entrance to the greenhouse on the first floor somewhere. Since they were going through the roof, they were going to have go down three floors to get to it, and then go back up three floors just to get back to Gaara. The fact that they were most likely going to be caught hadn't occurred to Naruto.

Naruto and Haku jumped off at the side of the roofs siding there. Naruto stood at the edge and gave Gaara the thumbs up to show that they were ok. He turned around and looked for any obvious way they could get in.

There was no door on the roof, or anything else that was large enough for an adult to get in or out. There were some small pipes jetting out at odd angles, and a heating vent, but nothing that would be easy. Naruto had half been expecting a door of some kind that they would be able to use, but since there wasn't one, he would have to think of another way.

"What about they vent?" Haku suggested pointing at it, "It looks big enough for the two of us to go though."

"Yeah, that'll work," Naruto said nodding.

"Ok, I'll help you up, and go in after you,"

Naruto nodded and was supported by Haku as he tried to remove the vent cover. It was screwed tight and no effort of his was able to move it at all. After almost fifteen minutes, Naruto paused to catch his breath and stare at his raw, red hands. Haku seemed to be alright supporting him, at least he hadn't said anything yet, but he did twitch as he rested.

"Sorry," Naruto told him, thinking that he was tired and a little irritated that he had to carry him, "I needed a break. I can go again now,"

He was shocked when with one tug, the cover came off neatly, but he wasn't too shocked to notice that the inside had frozen and had somehow actually broken the screws. He was somehow reminded of the dog that had been chasing him and how it had suddenly tripped on ice that had just appeared.

"Looks like there's a Yuki-onna who likes me!" Naruto told Haku, grinning.

Haku gave him a nervous smile and whispered for him to go on.

Naruto crawled through the entrance and began to make his way down the passage. It was pitch black in there, and the metal was so cold that it almost burned his hands at first. Naruto had to remind himself over and over again that if he didn't do this, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Neji, and Sai would all die. The first shock was when the tunnel suddenly turned into a sharp drop. He slid down for about five feet and about a second later heard the surprised gasp of Haku doing the same. The tunnel leveled off a little and turned into a slide for a while. By the time it had become straight, Naruto had no idea just how far down he had gone, but the force that Haku bumped into him showed that it had been a shorter time then he had thought.

"Are you ok?" Naruto whispered into the darkness.

"Yes," Haku's voice replied from behind him, "the drop scared me a bit though."

Naruto crawled towards a spot where the darkness of the tunnel didn't seem quite so thick. Only after reaching it and staring at the horizontal slits for a while did he realize that he was inside the air vent looking in at a dark room. He couldn't see anything in it other then the drawn curtains and the forms of a bed and some equipment. It looked completely deserted.

Naruto started to push the vent cover as hard as he could, but he was startled when the cover came off with a loud pop.

"Yatta!" Naruto whispered.

Both boys crawled out slowly, not thinking that if there had been anyone nearby, the sound of the cover coming off would have already gotten their attention.

"What are you doing?" A soft, unemotional voice said.

Naruto and Haku jumped and whirled around. They couldn't quite see the person in the faint light of the room, but they could tell that who ever it was a tall, slender person dressed in something that looked like a baggy shirt that covered their hands. From the voice, Naruto guessed that the person was a girl.

"Er…we're…uh…cleaning the air ducts…" Naruto said, the second that they were out of his mouth, he knew the words sounded stupid.

Haku must have been thinking something similar, because he looked very strangely at Naruto.

"The truth," the person said.

For the first time in his life, Naruto felt killing intent. It was a sickening feeling that hung in the air and penetrated everything. Naruto didn't really understand what it was, but he took an unconscious step back, Haku doing the same.

"We're…" Haku began in a defeated voice.

The tone sent a feeling of rage into Naruto. He had seen the murder of the Hokage, he had almost been killed by a Sand nin, and he had been, almost single handedly, keeping five people alive for two weeks. There was no way that he was going to cower before anyone, let alone some mysterious woman who that didn't know anything about.

"We're gonna get medicine for our friends!" Naruto said angrily, "and you're not gonna stop me."

The woman was silent for a moment, but the oppressive feeling in the air died away.

"Your friends…what are they to you?" the woman asked.

"Everything," Naruto hissed, "They're the people who acknowledged my existence."

Haku once again looked at Naruto strangely, this time it was a look of understanding…and a little jealousy.

There was another silence after that statement, finally, the person moved away, turning their back towards them.

"There's a plant in the conservatory downstairs that has black flowers with red tips. It will cure most diseases, but it is difficult to get and use. Boil the petals of the flower for exactly sixty seconds. Take the petals out and give the water to your friends. The medicine is extremely strong and if you do not follow those instructions, your friends will die. Do you understand?"

"…yes…" Haku whispered.

"You will not speak of meeting me," with this words the woman simply dissolved into what looked like little particles, that shot through the cracks in the windows of the room.

For a moment, Haku and Naruto stood, frozen, staring at where the woman had been, but their wits came back quickly when they thought that they heard footsteps. Both children hid behind a door as the sound neared.

"This is his room," A man's voice said, "Remember, no one is allowed in there until tomorrow. There are ninja coming in the morning to interrogate him. Thankfully, no one knows he's here or else we would have to have more security then ever."

"Yes, sir," a cool woman's voice replied.

"The camera's went out today again, just to tell you," the man continued, "Oh, and remember to get someone to clean up that mess in the hall of the first floor. Someone will slip on all that water."

"Yes, sir,"

The conversation and the footsteps faded into another hall, and Naruto felt himself slowly relax. After waiting five minutes, both dashed to the door and opened it a crack. There was a sleeping nurse in a chair next to the door, but nothing else seemed dangerous to them. Slowly, making sure not to wake up the nurse, the two boys opened the door and crept out into the hall. The nurse grunted a little and twitched in her sleep, which made the two jump, but when she didn't move again, they walked slowly down the hall.

The stairs weren't that hard to find, and truthfully, Naruto felt a little better on them. The fact that they were in an enclosed area where he could hear everything made him feel somewhat better. If someone was coming, he would know. The person might know that someone had been there, but if they ducked into one of the hallways, no one would know who had been there.

No one met them on the way down.

"This is weird," Haku said quietly to Naruto, "Shouldn't we have heard something by now?"

Naruto shrugged. He had never been in a hospital much…other then when it was absolutely necessary.

The first floor seemed just as deserted as the rest of the hospital. It was strange, they had only seen four people, counting the freaky woman, there. A nagging voice in Naruto's head, that had been coming up more and more often, told him that there was something wrong, and that they should be as careful as they could.

A directory near the stairs told them that they would have to pass the reception desk to make it to the greenhouse. Haku had given Naruto a worried look, but Naruto had charged ahead with a determined look on his face. It was strange how he looked so much older with it.

The desk was empty. This time Naruto knew there was something very wrong. This was way too convenient. Cautiously, he made his way to the desk and looked over. The a young woman with blonde hair lay sleeping, a split glass of water next to it. Haku picked the glass and looked at it.

"There's something wrong with it," he said.

"Drugs," Naruto said, remembering something from Iruka's long, dull lectures. "Some ninja like to use them."

"Let's get the stuff and get out of here," Haku said nervously. He had never had any real experience with a ninja before, other then the horror stories that his father had told him.

Both threw caution to the winds, and dashed along the corridor. When the reached a set of double doors with a sign, 'Greenhouse: Medics only' they were out of breath and very edgy. Naruto threw the two doors open, but paused to stare at the inside of the greenhouse.

It looked more like a miniature forest then anything else. The air felt warm, and somehow fresh, and there was even a light breeze moving through. Naruto had the sudden urge to curl up in a ball, fall asleep and hope to wake up at the Academy because Iruka-sensei had thrown the chalk stick at him again for sleeping. Instead he looked around for a black and red flower.

"This is it," he heard Haku call over.

He was leaning over a large, strange looking flower. It was solid black with red edges, the steam and leaves were a silvery green, and there was something completely otherworldly about it. There were a few others growing nearby, but none seemed as big as this one.

Naruto reached out for the stem, but Haku shook his head.

"The woman said that we only needed the petals. We'll leave the rest of it here," he told Naruto, his usually passive voice taking on a harder quality.

"A-alright," Naruto was surprised at his reaction to the flower. After all it was a plant.

Haku had just taken off the flower head when the door of the greenhouse opened to show a very upset looking nurse. She and the two thieves stared at each other for split second that seemed to last for an eternity, then everything happened at once. The nurse ran forwards to catch them, Naruto and Haku dashed by on either side of her, the door opened again, and a doctor, who had just opened the door, was knocked over by the two escaping children.

"What was that?" the stunned doctor's question was ignored as the nurse flew past him.

There was no time to think of running back upstairs. There had to be a back door to his hospital somewhere. They would find Gaara and get back to safety. Naruto didn't have a clue where he was going. In fact, he only really noticed anything other then that they were being chased was when his feet hit the water. He vaguely remembered the mention of a spill on the first floor.

"Haku" Naruto yelled, "change the water into ice!"

"What-but-" Haku began.

"I know you can do it!"

"You-you don't care?" Haku sounded shocked, "About my kekki genkai?"

"This is a stupid time to ask!"

There was a started cry behind them and Naruto turned his head around to see the woman slipping on the water, which had suddenly become ice.

As they turned a sharp corner towards the back door, Naruto saw the nurse rise to continue after them, but the sharp voice of the head doctor stopped her.

"Don't worry about them, they're just a distraction. I need you to get upstairs, right now, the special patient was murdered…"

* * *

The cold air outside felt awful after running that much. Both boys stood in the back of the hospital gasping for breath, and when a sudden movement at the entrance caught their attention, both boys prayed that it was nothing, since they wouldn't have been able to run anymore.

"Are you alright?" the soft, worried voice of Gaara asked.

"Gaara," Naruto gasped, "What are you doing here?"

"I got worried, so I came to help," Gaara told them, "Do you have the medicine?"

Naruto looked at Haku, hoping against hope that he hadn't dropped it.

Haku slowly held up one hand, with the crushed flower petals in it.

"Yatta!" Naruto cheered, "That's great!"

"You…knew about my…" Haku began.

"Yeah," Naruto said, "Since the vent. I guessed with the god, but I wasn't sure. That's really cool that you can do that!"

"You think so?" Haku asked.

Naruto nodded.

"I can't wait to tell Sasuke about tonight and introduce you. He's going to be so jealous he couldn't see it."

"You…want me to come back with you?" Haku was stunned. Was his existence really wanted?

"Of course," Gaara said with a small smile, "Everyone will want to meet you since you worked so hard to help them."

"Let's go," Naruto said, his impatience was obvious, "I wanna try this stuff out."

A small smile formed on Haku's lips as he silently followed what would soon become two of the eight people who he would do anything for.

* * *

**Omake**: Meetings.

Seventeen year old Mitarashi Anko would never let her friend Kurenai ever convince her to hang out with the Jonin again.

She stared at the Chuunin who had fallen into her lap with some disgust.

"I thought that this wasn't one of those places," she muttered.

"It wasn't supposed to be…" Kurenai said, eyeing the Chuunin dubiously, "Asuma said that this was a nice quiet place."

The Chuunin, a young man with a scar across his nose, smiled stupidly at Anko, a bit of drool coming from one corner.

"You're really pretty," he told her.

"And you're drooling in my lap and on my coat," Anko told him, "and if you don't move you're sorry carcass right now, you're going to be a carcuss."

Unfortunately, Iruka had passed out on her lap.

All in all, it was not the most romantic of meetings.

Iruka woke up the next morning with a splitting headache and quite a few cuts that he didn't remember having the day before.

* * *

_I really didn't like this chapter. For some reason I don't think it's one of my better ones. Hopefully the next one will be better. This was really hard to write with exams, studying, and having to hog tie my muse so it wouldn't get away from me._

_Some random venting about manga chapter 397 (spoilers): Blast you, Itachi, when I kinda want you to be good, you're evil. When I resign myself to the fact that you're evil, you might be sort of good. MAKE UP YOUR MIND, ITACHI!_

_I feel better now…_

_Additional notes:_

_Yuki-Onna: They are spirits of winter, snow, frost, and cold that can take the form of women. They are normally very dangerous, and freeze people who they find to death. _

_The characters: I know that Naruto seems to switch from being almost an adult to a child. That's because he's adapting to being a leader and thinking like one, but he's still a little kid. _

_Haku: Yes, he is a little out of character. Well, he's still young, and he hasn't met Zabuza, so I think he would be a little different. Also, I really didn't get that much time to get a feel for Haku's personality sense he was only there for a short time. I hope it's not too bad._

_The Woman: Yes, that was Konan. Why did she help them. Well, from her point of view, they were obviously orphans like her and were doing something to help their friends. From what little I've seen of her, she strikes me as the type to be extremely sentimental, and not to be someone who would kill a bunch of kids unless Pein told her to._

_About OCs: I hate them. I will be doing my best to keep from having them, and if I do, since I think I'm going to have to, they are going to be very minor, and probably antagonists. _

_The Omake: Was it any good? That was the first one I've done._

_Thank you for reading this, and please review. It really makes me feel loved, appreciated, and inspired to write more. _


	4. Part 1: Treasure Hunt

_Author's Corner: Ah, the joy of writing after a week hiatus. I had to worry about other things, but now I'm back. Thanks for the reviews everyone, they really make me feel good about this. I've been playing my video games all week, and reading manga, so I feel pretty inspired. On a side note, since someone asked about pairings, during this and the second part (which will act like the first part of Naruto) the pairings will only be hinted at but in the third part (which will act like Shippuuden) the pairings will become more important. This is the last of the main character introduction chapters and the one of the last of the Part 1 chapters. _

_Disclaimer: Pryotra does not own Naruto. If she did, then the story would be different in many ways, and probably not as well done._

_**"Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish."**_

_**-**__**Ovid**_

* * *

"Hey, Sasuke, pass it here!" Naruto yelled as the other boy threw a small air filled balloon that had been pilfered from one of the many booths in the area.

Water County's Spring Festival apparently was a major event. All the villages were holding one. With all the tourists and travelers from other counties and districts, it was no wonder that eight filthy children were able to blend into the crowd.

Naruto and his friends had gone from filthy to a new level of dirt. They were unrecognizable from the children who had escaped Konoha by night. Their hair had reached a uniform brownish gray color, and it had become impossible to tell whether one of them was male or female. With filthy faces, ragged, ripped, and torn clothes and long matted hair, they had become a standard example of the common street urchin.

Actually, Naruto had the feeling that it was the best thing in the world for them to be like this. This way no one even saw them. They had become a little bolder about the passing ninja. They didn't even seem to see the children that would watch them warily. If they were still being searched for, no one would look at a group of half-starved, half-naked children.

The Festival was a welcome change. The milling crowds dropped many things. Food, money, and even toys on occasion. The very balloon that they were playing with had been thrown away by a screaming child because he didn't wait it anymore. The second that it had hit the ground, Neji had come out of nowhere, grabbed it, and dashed into the crowd amid the wails of the child, who suddenly wanted the toy since someone else had it now.

Sasuke, Neji, and Naruto were using it at the moment, and were looking for the others. Sai had gone towards the game booths, probably to see if any overzealous person threw a disk to hard and ended up dropping their barbequed squid or their candy. Sakura and Hinata were hiding in amidst the vendors, looking for anything that had been dropped or a way to steal something.

It was amazing just how much they thought about food. Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji's little game was a rarity. Most of the time they thought of three things: food, shelter, and the fact that winter was coming.

After their little trip to the hospital, Naruto began to worry more and more about what would happen next winter. Maybe they wouldn't get so lucky, and with eight of them, it was completely impossible to hitch a ride to the next Country, and Security had become tight ever since Konoha had invaded Iwa a month ago.

Living the dream of being free from parents and authority was more like living a nightmare that was unending. Every day they woke up and wondered if they would eat, every night they huddled up together and wondered if they would be killed in their sleep. So many things that Naruto had taking for granted were now so important.

Like money.

People spent it so easily and on such stupid things. Like that woman was ever going to want that coffee mug with that stupid looking picture of a fat man dancing around with two fans. Naruto watched her give the money to a smirking man and thought of the bowl of ramen that would have bought. His stomach growled at the thought.

* * *

Sakura hid underneath the large wooden booth and hoped that the vendor hadn't seen her hide there. She had been sneaking from booth to booth for about two hours. This one, she had notice had a tendency to drop things. Her life had taking such a turn that she doubted that she would know herself from last fall. She had been such a crybaby. While she was still sensitive about her forehead, it was more of a violent sensitivity that resulted in the person who had hurt her being punched.

Some sadistic part of her longed to meet Ami again just so that she could she could get her for every forehead joke.

A woman in a expensive looking green kimono walked up to the man.

"Two origiri," she ordered.

Sakura's stomach rumbled.

"Coming up," the man said, "You're from around Kirigakure, right? Thought so. Have the Kaguya been causing trouble?"

"Same old, same old," the woman said with a sigh, "That clan always seems on the verge of causing some sort of battle. It's only a matter of time until they do something stupid like attack."

"I never have understood what they're being left along for," the vendor said, he sounded like he was trying to get some information.

"You're poking your nose where it's going to be bitten off, old man," the woman said in a level tone.

"I just want to know if the story of the treasure is true," the vendor said indignantly.

"That the Kaguya have a king's ransom stored off somewhere?" the woman asked, "Well, that would explain why they haven't been killed off."

"They don't know anything else in Kiri?" the man sounded disappointed.

"No, but I am returning home on the North Road. It takes you directly past their…district…I'm sure you could come and see for yourself…" the woman's voice had a bit of malice in it.

A large origiri fell to the floor, and Sakura snatched it up.

"You idiot," the woman said calmly, "and what is this?"

The cloth that protected Sakura from being seen was lifted and a thirty or so year old woman surveyed her.

"I hope this gaki isn't yours," the woman said without changing her tone.

"What gaki?" the vendor leaned over and started at her.

He aimed a kick for Sakura but missed. Sakura grabbed her origiri and dashed off, looking back in time to make a rude face.

"If I ever see you again near my booth, you'll get beaten to within an inch of your life!" the man yelled after here.

"Are those common here?" was the last thing that Sakura heard the woman ask.

She clutched the origiri tightly and wove through the crowds. The talk of the treasure and king's ransoms made her exited. Sakura didn't know what a king's ransom was, but she knew that kings ate every day, and got to bathe as much as they wanted, and didn't have to worry about what would happen when winter came. A king's ransom would have to be a lot of money.

Sakura couldn't wait to tell everyone what she had just learned.

* * *

"What've you got?" Gaara asked.

It was evening, which meant time to show off what had been pilfered. Everyone sat in one of Gaara's sand domes. It was warm, so there was no need for a fire, but they still sat close together. Gaara had been the first to produce findings which consisted of three sticks of fried squid, and a large dumpling.

"I got a rubber ball, something that looks edible but was stepped on by someone, and a stick of dango with two of the dango on it," Neji told them.

"I've got a tomato, a fried fish on a stick that someone took a bite of and dropped, and bag with some candy in it," Sasuke said proudly.

"I was allowed to take some vegetables that the vendor didn't want to sell because they looked old," Haku said with a smile.

"I got a bag with ryou in it," Naruto said waving it around.

"How did you get that?" Hinata asked, looking amazed.

"Some guys were playing a game where they rolled dice and bet on what they got, and I found two ryou and joined them. They thought it was funny, so they let me play. They didn't think it was funny when I won," Naruto told them, feeling rather proud of being able to help support his 'family'.

"I managed to get into a barbeque place," Sai told them, his face was blank, but his tone seemed pleased, "I managed to get a lot in a napkin before they found me."

"I…didn't manage to get anything today," Hinata mumbled, "Sorry,"

"Don't worry about it. Sasuke didn't manage to get anything for a week straight, remember," Naruto reminded her.

Sasuke glared over at Naruto.

"What? It was your fault you kept going to that tomato vendor. You're lucky he didn't do more then smack your hand when you tried to grab one."

"I'd like to see you do better, dobe!"

Naruto tackled him, and both began rolling around on the floor, trying to hit each other.

"You know," Haku told them, "It's really nice to see how much you care about each other."

"What?" Sai asked, looking confused.

"Well, it's strange, but I think that it's their strange way of telling each other how much they care," Haku said thoughtfully.

"…I hope they never care about me that much…" Neji muttered, "It looks too painful."

Gaara nodded in silent agreement.

Sai looked confused but kept his thoughts to himself.

"I heard something," Sakura said, knowing by this time that Sasuke and Naruto and their weird little friendship/rivalry could go on for hours, "where I was hiding under one of the tables."

"What's that?" Sasuke asked, looked up from the headlock that Naruto had gotten him into, and removing his fingers from up Naruto's nose.

"Well, get your fingers out of Naruto's nose and I'll tell you," Sakura said irritably.

Sasuke mumbled something inaudible.

"I heard that there was a treasure around here!" Sakura said excitedly, leaning forwards, "And it's worth a whole lot. The vendor said something about a king's ransom, and they said that a clan had it!"

"What clan?" Sai asked.

"I think that it was something like Kuguta," Sakura said, looking thoughtful.

Sai sat up very quickly. His face had the first look of shock that he had ever shown in his life. Normally, Naruto would have patted him on the back and congratulated him, but something told him that it wasn't the time for jokes. His eyes had gotten surprisingly wide.

"The Kaguya clan?" He asked.

"Yeah, I think that was it," Sakura nodded, "You know about them?"

"Yes," Sai said, "They are a very dangerous clan in this area. They are all very militant and brutal. Thankfully, they are disorganized and there is a lot of infighting with them. The Kaguya Complex is said to be an underground maze. They used to have a kekki genkai, but it died out. It was a good thing for both Konoha and Kiri. The Kaguya have no loyalties to anyone, and lately they've been constantly threatening to revolt against the Kiri and take it over. But I never heard that they had any money, let alone being rich."

"Well, maybe they just hide it really well," Neji muttered, "anyways, it's worth looking at."

"Not really," Sai muttered, "They're vicious, and none of us can fight that well."

"Don't be such a scaredy cat," Naruto said, "We'll be fine."

"So you want to go look for it?" Gaara asked.

Naruto wasn't quite sure what to say to that question. Yes, he wanted to see if there was any way for them to escape the world that they were in, and no, he didn't want to put anyone's life in danger. The time that he, Gaara and Haku had snuck into the hospital was an emergency. They would live a little longer if they didn't go on this treasure hunt. Only until winter comes again, a nasty, unpleasant thought came up. When winter comes, we'll all die.

"Yes," Naruto said, "You said that their place is like a maze. Well, we'll only take a little of the treasure, and if we're really careful, I bet they won't catch us."

Naruto's confidence seemed to reassure the others, but he wasn't reassured. How he to know what was was going to happen. Blast it, he didn't even know how to find this place let alone find treasure. They needed money so badly thought, and somehow, if these people did kill them, it would be better then a slow death that they were likely to face here.

"Where is this place?" Hinata asked.

"It's about an hour's walk from Kiri," Haku told them. "That woman said she was going on the North Road. I know where that is."

Haku was been accepted into the family before he had known it. He had been careful about giving the medicine, and had tried to be as friendly as he could. His already kind and gentle disposition made it impossible for even Sasuke, easily the most suspicious of the group, not to like him. He had been on the streets longer then they had, and hadn't had others there to share his pain, until they had all accepted him, and acknowledged his existence. Haku saw them all as more then family. They were quickly becoming his precious people. Although, it might have been against his better judgment to do this, he would help in anyway he could. Besides, he could tell just how much they really needed money.

"I can show you,"

* * *

Naruto was going to murder Neji one of these nights. That guy seemed to be magnetically attracted to any person near him. It was even worse since they had started to huddle together. No one mentioned Neji's kicking to him anymore, except for Sai, who whenever he was asked how he slept he would reply that he would have slept better if he hadn't been kicked ever five minutes by a Hyuuga who was dreaming of murdering his uncle. Neji always denied having kicked anyone and tried to blame Naruto. That didn't work since Naruto had his own bad habit of drooling, and everyone knew it.

They had 'camped out' after walking for another day. It had been three days since they had lift the festival. There were no carts coming by, and it seemed that the North Road was completely deserted. Haku said that it was normal, since people didn't like to pass too close to the Kaguya District. For some reason, this did nothing to make Naruto feel better about this decision.

Maybe a slow death would have been a better idea after all…

"Neji," Naruto said when he felt the foot hit him again, "I know that you're a light enough sleeper to hear me. If you kick me one more time, I'm going to bite you."

Neji kicked Sasuke.

"I hate all of you," Sasuke grumbled.

"Can we just walk?" Sai asked, "I don't think any of us are sleeping other then Neji-kun, and that isn't helping us."

"I got a better idea," Sakura grumbled, she was surprisingly bad tempered when she woke up, the shy girl had all but disappeared other then the thin varnish that she tried to keep up so that she could still be considered a lady, "Let's tie up Neji-kun and gag him."

"Sakura…" Hinata mumbled, "That won't help…he might start kicking you."

"He wouldn't…" she started.

"He would," Three guys mumbled.

"I could encase him in sand until you got to sleep," Gaara, always wanting to be helpful, suggested.

"Would you please stop talking about me like I'm either not here or can't understand you," Neji growled.

"STOP KICKING, NEJI!" Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura yelled.

"I think that just alerted every possible danger in five miles that we're here," Sai told them.

"Shut up," Sasuke grumbled, irritated that his 'Uchiha cool' had been lost.

"I think that it might be a good idea to continue going on," Haku said thoughtfully, "We're all away, and the Kaguya clan wouldn't be as active at night. I think we're close to their home too."

"Good," Sasuke grumbled, "This better be enough treasure to make my family look poor."

"I just want enough to take a bath," Hinata mumbled.

"Thank actually sounds nice," Gaara, who seemed to have a slight phobia of water, said.

There were nods and dreamy looks from everyone. So many things that had been taken for granted were now dreamed of longingly.

Walking at night in the middle of a Water Country was not a fun thing to do. Not only did they all know for a fact that there was constant civil war and there was a good change of getting killed by some kunai happy ninja, but there were a ton of bandits who took advantage of the chaos. Normally, no one bother a group of kids. Not out of kindness, but because they had nothing that anyone wanted. There was still plenty of danger, but they were able to go places that few in their right minds would even think of going near at night.

Actually, Naruto thought that the forest around this place was truly deserted. He and the others were getting fairly good at sensing the presence of other people, but he didn't feel anyone or anything. Even a lot of bigger animals didn't seem to be there. Naruto wondered what had scared them off.

Sasuke, who had been in the middle of the little group, dropped back to Naruto, who was at the end.

"Hey, Naruto," Sasuke whispered, "Have you noticed?"

"Yeah, it's really creepy,"

"Do you think that the Kaguya have anything to do with it?"

"Maybe, but who, or what, would make all the animals run away?"

"They have a Bloodline right?"

"But it's extinct,"

Sasuke shook his head, "Naruto, kekkei genkai don't go extinct. They water down, and they don't appear in people sometimes, or they don't activate, but they're always there. No one knows what they are or where they came from, but they will always exist in the families that have them. Nothing can change that. That's what the scroll Itachi gave me says, and I think it's right… All of it…and I think Neji's right…"

Sasuke looked away at that time, his eyes were dark and frightened. Naruto looked at him blankly, but then he realized what he was talking about…all those months ago when Hinata had found out about the Tenshi Byakugen.

"The Uchiha families supposed to cursed right?" Naruto said, sounding like he was talking out of the blue, "Well, if they are, it's because they don't try to stop it. I mean, this Mangekyo Sharingan can only be gotten by killing you best friend. What if there's another way to get it? The Uchiha either ignore the idea of the curse or they go with it. Why not find a way to fight it? It's kinda like a big lion. If you ignore it, it'll eat you anyways, and if you try to join it, it'll play with you for a while, then eat you. What if you try to kill it? You may get eaten still, but you still fought it, right? And who knows, maybe Susanoo really just wanted to set a trap to get rid of people who would misuse power. After all, you're an Uchiha, and you might be a jerk sometimes, but you're still my best friend, and I don't like evil people so…"

Naruto knew that he was rambling. He had found a sort of idea, but it had faded into blather towards the end, but Sasuke was smiling at Naruto, one of his rare actual smiles.

"Thanks…" Sasuke mumbled, "I mean it…I guess you're not the total dobe I used to think you were…but I'm still cooler."

Naruto started to laugh.

A friendship/rivalry that would soon be the stuff of legends had begun.

* * *

"Oh, look at the mighty Kaguya District," Neji said sardonically, "It looks like the dread family has fallen on hard times."

"It doesn't look like there's a treasure," Sai agreed.

A large, squat, square wooden building sat in the faint light from the crescent moon. Pieces of it were rotten and starting to fall off the walls. There were no windows that they could see, in fact the small door in the front was the only opening in that building. It was probably only a wall, but Naruto was feeling worse every minute. He was starting to learn the down side of leadership: everything was his fault. They had left a festival where they would have at least had food to chase after an imaginary treasure.

"Um…well, since we're here…let's see if we can get in…" Naruto said lamely.

For some reason there didn't seem to be any guards around the building, which considering the reputation of being very militant and rebellious, it didn't seem to make all that much sense. Naruto would have expected to have had to sneak up on the place, but it seemed almost abandoned. Something told Naruto that he should tell them all to forget it and leave, but Naruto had never listened to his sane side all that much before, and he wasn't going to start now.

They wondered around the building about three times looking for a way in. Nothing seemed to work, the walls that they might be able to scale looked like they couldn't hold their weight, the door was completely out of the question, and there weren't any windows. They were about to give up when Sai noticed the irregularity in one of the walls. Hinata and Neji activated their Byakugen and confirmed that it looked like it had been some sort of escape route.

"It looks like it hasn't been used for a really long time," Hinata said thoughtfully, "I don't see any past chakra signatures."

Hinata had learned that the Tenshi Byakugen could also see where people had been. It wasn't a very useful ability in many ways, which might have been why it wasn't mentioned, but it had it's place.

"How do you open it?" Sakura asked, "Should we just hit it until it falls over?"

"I could break it down with my sand," Gaara suggested.

"Or we could try to do something that wouldn't attract everyone's attention," Neji suggested.

"That might be a good idea," Sai said with a bright smile.

Sakura glared at both of them.

"What do you think we should do?" she asked in an annoyed sounding voice.

"Feel around for something that looks like a switch," Sasuke said like it was obvious.

Sakura glared over at him too, which made Sasuke's self confident look waver just a bit.

Hinata sighed.

"Stop it," she said in a bored tone, "Neji-niisan, you know better."

Neji looked somewhat embarrassed, but not really.

"Let's do Sasuke's idea," Naruto suggested as if nothing had happened.

For the next ten minutes, they pressed a wall and tried to feel anything that seemed like it had once been a switch. Hinata and Neji, Byakugen activated, both tried to direct them to a switch, but it was difficult to do. Haku got an impressive amount of slivers and Gaara began to try to use small parts of sand to press parts of the wall that they couldn't reach. Sai began to draw little ink mice to see if they could go through any cracks in the walls and trip the switch from the inside. In the end, Naruto found the door by chance when he punched the wall in irritation and nearly killed himself when the door snapped open.

"Don't say it!" Naruto said angrily, seeing the looks on his friends faces, "Don't even think it!"

"I'm thinking it," Sasuke told him.

Naruto muttered something that he had heard the soldiers that he had been gambling with say to him when he had won, and stood up. He was standing in a corridor that would have been very dark if it hadn't been for the shaft of moonlight that came from the door that they had opened. From what Naruto could see, the hallway went on into darkness in both directions. There seemed to be some doors and what might had been a door to another hallway to his left. There seemed to be an unlit torch above them, beyond his reach.

"Hey, Gaara, can you get that torch down?" Naruto asked.

Gaara nodded and the sand that seemed to always collect on his skin drifted over to the torch and wrapped around it. Slowly, probably because Gaara was being careful not to drop it, the torch came to Naruto's level.

"Guess what, Sasuke?" Naruto asked with a grin.

Sasuke smirked and his hands formed a now familiar pattern.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu," He said calmly.

A small torrent of fire came from his mouth and lit the torch.

"Cha!" Sakura cheered, "Let's go get that treasure!"

"I want pearls!" Hinata joined in excitedly. She was so different then the shy, stuttering girl that Naruto had met that night, "But we have to get it first. Then we can divide it all."

"If there is any," Neji muttered darkly.

"You know," Haku said thoughtfully, "even if there isn't any treasure…there's food here, and lots of other things I bet…"

They all stared at him.

"You're evil," Naruto said admiringly.

"No, I'm not!" Haku denied, "I was just thinking that we need these things more then they do. And maybe we can steal some more scrolls too…"

"He's a closet evil mastermind," Naruto whispered to Hinata, who nodded.

Haku looked very uncomfortable at the awestruck looks of his friends.

"It…was just a suggestion…" he said raising his hands, "we don't have to…"

"I like it," Gaara said nodding.

"Me too," was the response from everyone.

"Let's do Haku's evil plan!" Hinata said with a smile.

"It…wasn't meant to be…" Haku mumbled, but stopped when he saw everyone marching off and walked after them.

* * *

Naruto and the rest walked down the corridor for what seemed like an hour but was probably only about fifteen minutes. There were no doors or windows, and the only light came from the torches. Naruto thought that it looked like a scene in one of the horror movies that the Landlord had forced him to watch ever since he was four. Because of that twit Naruto was still afraid of ghosts. This looked like the perfect place to find one too with the dim shadows and the flickering light of the torch that they had found. Finally, they reached a four way cross. A long stair way went up one way and down the next. Because treasure was usually to be found underground, the group wordlessly went towards the downward stairway.

Several other hallways branched off from the stairway, and somehow, Naruto felt like they weren't going all that far down. The Kuguya Building seemed to be on a hill.

It was strange, Naruto noticed, no one was here. There were no guards. Were they so sure that they were in no danger that that had just stopped guarding the place, or was it something worse.

The stairway ended at a small door. There was a large lock on it and it seemed to be fairly well frequented. Eight pairs of eyes looked hopefully at one another.

"This is it!" Naruto whispered, "Gaara, use your sand and break the lock."

The floor, which seemed to be made of dirt, seemed to shift as some of it began to drift towards the lock and fill it. There was a crack and something inside the lock broke. Neji took it off and he and Haku opened the door.

It was another hallway, but this was different from the others. It looked like it had been carved out from rock a long time ago, and candles burned in old sockets giving the whole place a creepy look, but the thing that made the hair on the back of Naruto's neck rise was the sound of something down the hall, tapping.

"It's a ghost!" Naruto whispered.

"There's no such thing as ghosts," Sai whispered back.

"Says who?" Naruto hissed.

"Danzo," Sai shot back.

"Good thing for him there aren't," Sasuke muttered.

Slowly, and not quite convinced that there was no ghost at the other end, Naruto led them into the room. It was hard to see much in front of him because of the twists and turns, but the tapping was growing louder. Naruto wondered if maybe it was a guard for the treasure. At last, they say something up ahead, Naruto walked faster. It looked like door, but…where those bars?

"Y-you're not treasure," Naruto said stupidly at the boy sitting behind the bars.

He was pale, with long white hair that was tied in a loose ponytail, much like Neji. He looked about Haku's age. His pale clothes and his pale hair and skin made him almost look like a ghost, but two things really caught Naruto's attention. The first were the two red circular marks on his forehead, and the second were his grey-blue eyes.

They were so empty.

"Who are you?" the boy asked. His voice was hoarse and it didn't sound like he used it much.

"We're-" Haku began.

"What are you doing in there!" Hinata asked, looking upset, "Who put you in there!"

The boy looked at her blankly.

"I don't know," he said, "I've always been here…who are you?"

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto said hurriedly, "This is Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Hyuuga Neji, Hyuuga Hinata, Sai, Gaara, and Akiyama Haku."

The boy was silent for a few minutes while the rest stared at him, finally he seemed to understand that they were waiting for him to say something.

"…I'm Kaguya Kimimaro," he said softly, almost as if shocked that they were holding a conversation at all.

"Kaguya!" Neji said, looking shocked, "Why would the Kuguya lock up one of their own children?!"

"…I…don't know…" Kimimaro said quietly, "I think…they're afraid of me…"

"Why?" Hinata asked talking a step forward smiling a little.

For the first time, Naruto noticed that the boy was holding something long and white. At first he thought that it was some kind of stick or root, but then he realized.

"That's a bone," he said pointing at it, "What are you doing with that bone?"

Kimimaro didn't seem to have any problem with all these questions. Actually, Naruto got the feeling that he was somewhere between shock and euphoria, shock that they were strange people who had just appeared out of nowhere and were questioning him, and euphoria that there was someone who wasn't seeing right through him.

"I made it," he said simply.

"What?" Naruto, Sasuke, and Haku asked together.

"That's the kekkei genkai of the Kaguya Clan," Sai said looking interestedly at Kimimaro, "It's called Shikotsu Myaku, and it allows the user to manipulate their bone structure at will as well as use them as weapons, and not suffer from bone damage. No one knows where it came from. I thought that it had died."

"Kekkei genkai don't die," Sasuke muttered.

"It's not fair!"

Naruto turned to see Haku was the one who had shouted. That was strange enough, since Haku didn't seem able to raise his voice, but he looked furious and his hands were balled into fists.

"No matter what…it's all the same," he whispered, "People are afraid of people with power or they just try to control them. It's not fair…we didn't ask to have power. People have no right to hate us! We're not monsters! We're just…different…"

"You have powers too?" Kimimaro asked, his eyes had widened and hope was glowing in them. He wasn't alone. There were people like him.

"Yeah," Sasuke told him, "All of us have powers."

"Let's let him out," Naruto said suddenly, "No one should be trapped here."

And he had the same eyes that Haku had had before he had joined them. So empty and determined to prove their existence and its worth.

"Neji-niisan and I should be able to break though it," Hinata suggested.

Naruto nodded.

Both Hyuuga stood on opposite sides of the wooden grate with their Byakugen active.

"Just like we've practiced," Neji told her, "You'll be fine."

Hinata smiled a little.

"I'm already not as afraid as I used to be," She told him.

"Alright, Jyuken!" Neji and Hinata called out as they both struck the grate. They cut through the wood without much trouble or noise, not that there was anyone to hear. The Grate collapsed in on itself.

Kimimaro watched them in silent shock. His mind seemed to be registering that a group of perfect strangers had just popped up out of nowhere and let him out. He looked between the group and the wreckage of the grate. His face didn't show much emotion but his eyes were wide.

"You're free," Naruto said with a smile, "You can come with us, stay here, or whatever."

"Free…" Kimimaro repeated, "I can come with you?"

"Yeah," Sasuke muttered, "That's what he said."

"You don't have to be alone anymore," Hinata said with a smile.

Kimimaro stood up and took a step forwards across the remains of the grate to the group.

The circle was complete.

* * *

"Jackpot," Naruto whispered as he stared into the room.

It wasn't treasure, but it was something almost as good.

The small storage room on the level above Kimimaro's prison was full to bursting with kunai, trail packs, and the bandagelike armor that was so popular with ninja. There were barrels of dried food, all ready to be packed up and taken on the road. There was also clothes, blanket, and backpacks.

All of them were busy rummaging through everything and grabbing as much as they could carry. They found out that the clothes were too big for them, but each of them took a backpack with them and filled them with as much as they could. Haku ignored the kunai because he thought that they were too big and bulky and picked out a bunch of senbon, long steel needles. Even when Neji pointed out that the senbon had a lower chance of hitting an opponent, Haku shrugged and took them anyways. Most of the backpacks were taken up with food. Sadly, they weren't able to carry the blankets with them.

"This is great stuff," Haku said smiling as he sorted through the food, "I don't think that we'll be hungry for a while."

"Maybe we should see if the next store room has money," Sai suggested, "They have a lot more stuff then I thought that they would."

"There should be a room with scrolls on the next level," Kimimaro spoke up suddenly, "I heard the man in charge of feeding me mentioning it once."

"Let's find a scroll about the techniques about your clan," Gaara said to him, "We all have scrolls that we're using, you need one too. Then you can practice with us."

Kimimaro nodded once.

"I'll do my best to be useful," he said.

Naruto laughed.

"You don't have to be useful," he said grinning, "You're one of us now. We learn this stuff because we want to, and because we think that one day it'll help us. After all, what kinda Hokage doesn't know any jutsu?"

"What's a Hokage?" Kimimaro asked curiously.

"The leader of the village that Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Neji and I used to live in," Sai said, his weird smile in place, "It's Naruto's dream that's very unlikely to happen."

"HEY!" Naruto said indignantly.

"Shut up!" Sasuke and Neji hissed.

* * *

The room that Kimimaro had talked about was right next to an impressive set of double doors with grotesque pictures of battle and carnage. Naruto felt somewhat queasy just looking at it, but the voices on the other end caused him to lean forwards to listen.

He had wandered off a little way away from his friends. He had volunteered for guard duty. While the library had been huge, he didn't really want to see it. Something about the dark wood and the musty smell of the candles made Naruto feel like he was being watched somehow, so while the rest looked for a scroll to help Kimimaro, Naruto watched the hall for anyone who was coming.

"And why shouldn't we attack soon?" a loud man was shouting, "We are the most powerful clan in Water Country, they would all be killed in one battle!"

"And using the boy would assure us of victory!" another man yelled.

"Here, here!" a course sounding woman yelled.

"We attack tomorrow at dusk!" Another man was yelling.

There was more, but Naruto had scuttled away towards the library.

"Uh, guys," Naruto said nervously, "I think we'd better go…"

"We're getting close…" Sakura mumbled.

"No, I really think we need to go," Naruto pushed.

"You're not the boss," Neji grumbled, "and we're not done yet…"

"Guys…"

"I think this is it," Sai said, looking at where he had thrown a bunch of books unto the floor and found a small locked cabinet. He took out a thin metal rod that he had grabbed in the last storeroom and injected it into the lock. After stirring around a little, a loud click sounded and the small door opened to reveal a scroll about the size of the ones that they were carrying. Tossed it down to Kimimaro.

"It's got a blood seal on it," he said, "Prick your finger and get some blood on the scroll."

Kimimaro did as he was told, and he opened the scroll without a problem. Neji and Haku looked over his shoulder and nodded.

"This looks right," Neji said calmly.

"I wish I could find something like that," Haku sighed, "All I've been doing is practicing control…"

"Guys, we have to go!" Naruto said angrily, "There's a meeting going on the next room."

"So?" Neji said angrily back, "We might need some of this!"

"These guys'll kill us," Naruto shot back, "I heard them, and the meetings almost over. You guys have trusted me up till now. Trust me on this: these guys are bad."

"He's right," Kimimaro said, his eyes wider then usual, "If my family sees you, they'll kill you."

The rest looked at each other.

"I bet we can take them," Neji said thoughtfully.

Sasuke stared at him like he was the biggest idiot he had ever seen in a long line of idiots.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Hinata, say something to your cousin."

"They're right," Hinata said pushing her fingers together, it was an old habit, "This is a big clan, and when we fought that one guy, we got really lucky. Just because we've been practicing a bunch of jutsu and none of them have an active kekkei genkai doesn't mean that we'll win…we're just kids…Neji-niisan."

"Guys," Naruto was starting to hop from foot to foot, "the talking's stopped."

Everyone dropped what they were doing and made a dash for the door, slipping out up it quickly. Sasuke left what was left of the torch that they had used in the library. The place had obviously been ransacked, but Naruto hoped that the Kuguya would worry more about the library then finding the culprit. Even then it sounded improbable.

They dashed into the darkness of the hallway, and not a moment too soon. It seemed like the second that they were hidden, the door opened and people started to file out.

"Hurry up," Naruto whispered, "Everyone, grab someone else's hand. We can't lose anyone."

Naruto reached out and found someone's hand, and someone else grabbed his other one. All nine of them ran as fast as they could, stumbling all the way, towards the stairs and the trapdoor. The hallways and stairs seemed to go on forever, but finally Naruto felt someone squeeze his arm and saw a faint light. They burst from the hallway into the cool air of midnight. Neji and Sasuke grabbed the wooden door and put it in place.

There was an alarm from inside the building.

"Hurry!" Naruto yelled, throwing caution to the winds.

Naruto didn't know just how long he and the others ran. When he was older, he would only remember an impression of blurring trees, snapping branches, trying to breathe while his lungs were burning, and not caring what happened as long as they managed to get away. After a while they weren't running as much as they were stumbling, and at last Naruto found himself in a pile of arms and legs and exhausted breathing.

"Hey!"

Naruto looked up wearily.

He was staring at a large horse-pulled wagon with a middle aged man looking at them in surprise.

"What are you kids doing out here?" the man said, "It's dangerous, this is Kaguya territory. You kids are lucky that one of their patrols didn't find you. Get on. I'll take you to the Festival at Okino. I'm not going to let some psychotic clan find you and display your heads on pikes as a warning."

* * *

"ANOTHER WIN!" the announcer yelled, "NUMBER 4 IS ON FIRE!"

A woman who appeared to be about twenty stared at the huge number of coins as her assistant danced with glee and swung the pet pig around. Her brown eyes narrowed as she looked over at a large box filled with coins and two bags that were almost bursting with money.

"You've been winning all week!" the black haired assistant cheered, "We're going to pay off all our debt!"

The woman didn't seem to be sharing in the joy of the occasion. On the contrary her eyes continued to narrow and she bit her lip.

"This is the worst possible of omens…" she muttered.

* * *

**Omake**: The Legendary Gambler

Naruto clutched the bag closely to him as he approached the small group of ninja. They were a rough looking crowd, but Naruto continued to summon his courage and went on.

"Hey, gaki," one of them called, "Get out of here!"

"I want to play too!" Naruto yelled back.

"Ya got any money?" one of them asked, a slight smirk on his face.

Naruto held up the two ryou he had found, and hoped that he looked more confident that he felt. He was starting to wonder if he could still just run off and try this again another night, but secretly, he knew that if he ran away now, he wouldn't even do this again.

"Hey, Dato," one of them said indignantly, "You're not going to let him are you? I have a kid his age!"

"What are you complaining about?" the first one asked, "It's his choice what he does with his money."

"You're disgusting," the third one said, "I refuse to play this game. It'd be like stealing from my son!"

"Alright, kid, ya wanna play?" the second one said with a smirk.

"Yeah, but I don't know how," Naruto admitted.

The two men exchanged grins.

"All ya do is bet on what you roll, it's real easy…The hardest ones to get are seven and eleven…so bet on those cause you'll win."

"Ok!" Naruto chirped.

"You start," the first one said, smiling and handing Naruto a pair of dice.

"Ok, I bet everything on seven!" Naruto said rolling the dice.

The two men stared at the four and the three that stared up at them.

"Beginner's luck," the second one said.

* * *

Naruto skipped off with a very full bag of money leaving two men staring after him with a look of shock and despair.

"We got cleaned out by a six year old," the first one said.

"You know," the ninja who had sat out said thoughtfully, "I think I might bring my son next time…"

"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!"

* * *

_Sorry that this is so late. I've had exams and then I had to do yard work and…no one really cares. I actually liked this chapter better then the last one, but there were parts of it that were hard to write. I seem to have trouble writing things that are emotional, so I hope that it's not too bad. Please tell me any suggestions._

_Notes:_

_Kimimaro: I hope that he's somewhat in character. It's really hard to right him sense I only had one fight and a flashback to work with. _

_Running: I know that this and the last chapter had no real action, but bare with me. Since they're so young, I really can't have them fighting adults and winning. It doesn't make sense, and I don't really want to make them too powerful. Things will pick up in part two. _

_Kekkei genkai: Yeah, I know that I'm making up stuff with the whole thing from folklore, but I think that it helps to have a story to them. I hope that it makes some sense._

_I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter. If you have anything you think I should change or that I did wrong, tell me. I'm also always open to suggestion. While I have the plot mapped out, I always like to hear what people think could happen._

_Review!_


	5. Part 1: Lullaby

_Author's Corner: Finally, more chapters that have to do with the plot and less to do with introducing characters. This chapter gave me a little trouble. At first it just wouldn't come to me, but after reading some other stuff and using my imagination a little, it came out. Actually, I like Tsunade quite a bit. She's not only amusing, but she seems to actually like Naruto in the canon, and in my opinion, Naruto needs love. We're getting close to the end of part one, so bare with me. I know that this is taking a while, but it's fairly important. Besides, you guy don't just want pointless action right? Don't answer that._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra doesn't own Naruto, if she did the latest person who died in the manga wouldn't have died because she thinks that he rocks and she's kind of in shock that the random theories she's been dreaming of are true._

_**Loss leaves us empty - but learn not to close your heart and mind in grief. Allow life to replenish you. When sorrow comes it seems impossible - but new joys wait to fill the void.**_

_**-**__**Pam Brown**_

* * *

Tsunade had learned from experience that winning streaks were anything but a good thing. When Tsunade was losing, everything was normal, but if she won for a long period of time, she knew that something horrible would happen.

The first time that she had had a winning streak had been right before her younger brother had died. She had won straight for almost two weeks, and even Jiraiya had stopped playing with her. After her world had been shattered by that death, her losing streak had returned, and Tsunade hadn't thought anything of it. The second time that she had had a winning streak was before Dan was killed in an attack. Tsunade was too distraught to worry about her gambling, but afterwards, she wondered. The third time was before the Kyuubi attack and when Orochimaru had began to act strangely. That time she had paid attention, and when she left the village after the attack, she always remembered to beware of winning streaks. They would come, but only when something horrible was about to happen. Getting attacked, meeting up with someone she didn't want to see, like her creditors, or some natural disaster always followed a winning streak, even a small one.

This was not a small winning streak. Tsunade had been winning the grand prize at everything for almost two weeks. She wondered if this meant that Shizune, her assistant and one of the last people that she was close to, was going to die as well, but she knew that if she anticipated something, it wouldn't happen. If there was something that was completely impossible to have occur, that was going to be what happened.

Shizune didn't seem to think that they were headed for anything wrong, actually, she seemed so thrilled that they were going to pay off their debt, Tsunade didn't have the heart to tell her that they were about to face some horror in the future.

Now she was just biding her time. What ever it was would come. It always did. When she ran away it met her there, when she stayed, it was waiting for her. Tsunade had developed a somewhat fatalistic attitude over the years, and the longer she had to wait, the worse the thing that was about to happen would be.

The day was bright and sunny with a mild breeze. It was warm, but not too hot. All in all, it was a perfect day in Tea Country. Tsunade had only arrived a few days ago, and she new that this was the perfect place for something horrible to happen.

At best it would just be Orochimaru or Jiraiya. Orochimaru would try to get her to join him and his stupid little crusade against Konoha that was basically his having a temper tantrum about not being allowed to be Hokage. Jiraiya would be worse. He would hit on her, and flirt with random women, and get drunk, and pass out on her, and basically humiliate her with the combination of his 'research' and romantic escapades. This would go on for about a week then Tsunade and Shizune would flee in the middle of the night.

That would be irritating, but not as bad as things could be.

"Another WIN!" the announcer yelled into the microphone as Tsunade stared at the Wheel of Fate, the casino's highest stakes game. The owner was starting to make his way towards her, and his look was all Tsunade needed to see.

The fact was, she was winning too much. It didn't matter that she wasn't cheating; the casino was starting to lose money on her.

"Shizune," Tsunade commanded, "Let's go."

"Hai!" the black hair girl chirped, she seemed to be in a disgustingly good mood, "Are we going to see your creditors now?"

"Maybe," Tsunade said thoughtfully as the reached the door to the casino.

She opened the door to face three filthy looking people, no children, in a huddle. They were of various ages, and indeterminate sex or appearance. They smelled foul and they seemed to be holding a small bag, probably something they picked up off the street, with maybe three ryou in it.

"I'll do it," one of them was saying, "I'm the one who wins."

"But what if you get in trouble for cheating?" another asked.

"I won't," the first one told them, "Why would I get in trouble?"

"Well, for one thing, you're underage," the third said with a bright smile and bit into some unknown substance that might have been food in a past life, "and for another thing, they will get really mad when you win, and then you'll get arrested and maybe killed."

"Thanks, Sai," the first one sighed, "by the way…what is that?"

The child looked down at the thing he had just taken a bite of.

"You know…I don't know…" he said thoughtfully.

"You don't know…and you're eating it?" the second one asked, looking disgusted.

"Haku said that once you got past the gag reflex it opened a broad new range of food…"

"Ew,"

Tsunade had to admit that she felt kind of sorry for the things. They were so desperate that they were going to try their luck at the slots. She was also morbidly curious, so when the three broke the huddle, and the first one walked in, Tsunade followed him. The manager was glaring at her, but since she seemed to only be watching, not gambling, he seemed content to let her be.

Tsunade was slightly disgusted that he allowed some street urchin who was obviously under age, to just walk in, but hid it well.

The first one walked straight to the table where poker was being played and sat down. The three others who were playing looked amused at the kid put down all the money that he had (three ryou) and grinned.

"I want to play!" he told them.

"Kid, you don't have the money," one of the players said bluntly.

"Oh, let the kid stick his money in the pot. If he wins, he plays normally, it not…well we have three more ryou in the pot don't we?" another said with a grin.

Tsunade wanted to punch him. Taking advantage of some kid like that! She had half a mind to grab the kid and buy him something to eat just to spite these people. She made a move, but stopped when she saw the boy's grin. She would wait. He was going to have to learn the hard way. It was the first thing she had learned as a genin. No matter how many times someone bailed you out of something, you would never really learn until the thing you were doing blew up in your face.

Tsunade watched and waited.

"I'll bet that my cards are cooler then all of yours," the kid said with a grin.

One of the players, guessing that he had never actually played poker in his life, looked like his birthday had just come early. The other two didn't seem to care all that much, since they didn't even look up. One of them looked a little guilty.

The betting went few times around until it was seen at fifty ryou. The first play set down a full house, queen high, the second one, the one who had been grinning at the idea of taking the money from the kid, put down four twos with a large grin, and the third, who had folded, was watching the kid with interest.

"Ok, gaki, show us what you got," the second one said, he was obviously gloating.

"Ok!" the kid said laying down his cards, "Didn't I tell you they were cooler! Look, it's all one color and the whole royal family is together for a change and-"

Before there could be a general uproar, Tsunade decided to get involved. For one thing…this kid had gotten a royal flush without even having to pick up any other cards…if she had him…she would be so rich…and she'd better take him before someone else got him…

* * *

Naruto raked in the ryou as fast as he could while the players were still in a state of shock. He had learned from experience that once people came to grips with the fact that they had just lost against him, they would get really mad. Normally, they would follow him out and try to take the money from him.

"...how…" one of them mumbled as Naruto dashed away, leaving the rest of the money.

"GET THE CHEATING GAKI!" the other roared.

There was instant chaos in the room.

Naruto ducked under a pair of legs and threw the doors open. He didn't think enough to call out to Sai and Hinata. They didn't seem to need to be told to run, because the second that they saw Naruto dash out the door, they were right behind him. Naruto didn't need to look back to know that he was being followed. He could feel the killing intent coming from some of those people.

"Split!" Naruto yelled.

Once they came to a three way fork, Naruto and the others each went different ways. Hopefully, it would confuse them enough for Naruto to get away. He dodged through the streets and carefully wove through the crowd of milling people. When he stopped for breath, Naruto was in a small back alley that ended in a dead end.

"Got you!"

Naruto turned around to see the two men from the poker game grinning. Naruto now knew just why they were called dead ends.

"Don't worry, gaki," one said with a smirk, "it won't hurt too bad."

Naruto backed up until his back was pressed against the wall. He could try to use Kage Bushin, but that might not help. Naruto was still trapped, and even if he multiplied himself until his collapsed, those guys weren't going to let him run away. Naruto dropped the money behind him and hoped that Sai and Hinata had found the others.

"Men like you are a disgrace to gamblers," a woman's voice said from behind the two, "Being able to take your loss is the sign of a true gambler! No matter who you lose to it is the duty of a gambler to suck it up and pay!"

She was tall and maybe in her mid to late twenties, with blond hair tied in two low ponytails and brown eyes. Her clothes were simple and cheep looking peasant wear, but something about her gave the impression that she wore them for comfort, not necessity. Her arms were crossed and her eyes were dangerously narrow.

"What ya gonna do about girly?" the man asked.

The woman smirked and sent a punch that Naruto swore could have torn down a building into the man's gut, sending him flying into one of the walls, leaving a crater. The other man stared at his companion dumbly before realizing that psycho woman was still there. That was right before he joined his friend in the crater.

Naruto stared, openmouthed at the woman who had just beaten the snot out of two adult men.

Without waiting for him to say anything walked over, picked him up and left the alley with him under her arm.

"Shizune!" she barked out.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" a black haired girl appeared out of nowhere.

"There'll be some other mudpuppies following this one," the woman carrying him told her, "when you find them all, take them too,"

"Hai!"

It was then that Naruto started to wonder if there was some deity that had a sick sense of humor and had allowed them to survive so long only to be caught by some psycho woman and made her slaves.

* * *

Nara Shikamaru didn't show it ever, but he was a genius.

Unlike most of his classmates, he had noticed the changes that Danzou had set up where not temporary.

He couldn't see that man as the Godaime Hokage for some reason, and his parents barely concealed their contempt for the man. He had declared war almost right after the funeral for the Sandaime, and things had changed quickly after that.

First, the Uchiha Military Police had all but taken over the ANBU. Only a few of the members who had been there before the war were still there. The Police had been given new powers. The ability to arrest without charge, hold a person in prison indefinitely, and even execute someone who they had taken in privately. The military police always seemed to be loitering around, watching people.

Second, the Academy seemed to have changed. Shikamaru doubted that many of the other students had seen it, but teachers were slowly being replaced, and the structure of the lessons had changed. They were focusing more on killing and cutting off emotions as opposed to defending yourself and learning how to control your emotions when killing was necessary. Iruka-sensei was still there, but he seemed somehow…diminished since the assassination of the Sandaime and the kidnapping. Shikamaru had a feeling that it was only a matter of time before he was replaced.

Another was the introduction of ROOT, a branch of the ANBU that he had never heard of. From what he had seen, they were loyal only to Danzou and completely capable of anything. He had never seen one of them even give off a hint of emotion.

Shikamaru opened his eyes as the bell rang, he still slept through most of his classes, even though the punishments were stricter now. Even his mother didn't seem to mind anything. She seemed to think of it as a sign of protest. The Nara clan had taken a stand against Danzou along with the Yamanaka and the Akimichi. This was a dangerous position to be in at the moment, when almost everyone else (other then the Aburame, who never took sides in anything) supported Danzou almost completely. Shikamaru was glared at suspiciously by teachers, and along with Ino and Chouji, forced to take special classes. This, in Shikamaru's mind was probably not the best way to deal with the three of them. Ino thought the classes were a waste of time and was too busy mourning for Uchiha Sasuke to listen to them, and Chouji never listened to anything that didn't involve one of three things: food, vital information, and plans to do something he enjoyed. Shikamaru was smart enough to understand brainwashing, so he simply taught himself how to sleep with his eyes open.

He passed the gym were he, Kiba, Chouji, and Naruto had used to hang out before, and a feeling of slight sadness welled up in him. He had actually gotten to somewhat like the troublesome guy, and for some reason he didn't thing that he was really being told the truth about what happened to him.

"Tch, troublesome," Shikamaru complained to no one, "Why would a bunch of troublesome enemy nin kidnap Naruto? Sasuke and Hinata I get, but _Naruto_?"

He shook his head and sighed.

Shikamaru was a true genius in that he knew when to put something off until it made sense.

* * *

Naruto stared up at the small bathhouse. Hinata and Sakura had been there yesterday, looking at it and dreaming of what it looked like inside. It was a traditional looking place, with a small, but pretty ornamental garden in front, complete with bamboo fountain. There didn't seem to be any guests there, and the milling crowd paid no attention to it. Naruto knew that there was another bathhouse in this town, a really big expensive looking one, which everyone seemed to go to.

The psycho woman had carried him all the way here, and was walking up to the door as he looked. Naruto wondered if she was the owner. That would make sense; she would need cheap labor to keep the place going.

The psycho woman opened the door and dropped Naruto.

He was in a small entrance room with highly polished walls and floor. In one corner there was a reception desk that was empty, the worker was probably on break, and on the wall behind it were two doors for men and woman. There was another door opposite the desk that Naruto assumed led the individual rooms.

"When's the last time you washed?" she asked.

"I got rained on a few days ago…"

The woman stared at him and twitched a little.

"Alright, gaki, you're going to go in there and take a bath, get in there," the woman told him.

"But-" Naruto started.

"Gaki, do you want to see just what I did to those men?" the woman asked.

"No…"

"Then get in there and come out when you look like a human again,"

"H-hai!"

Naruto dashed into the room and shut the door, undressed, carefully took off his scroll, placed it in a corner and put on a towel. In a second he was in the bath and not sure whether he was about to die of happiness or not. There was soup and the water was hotter then he had felt for almost a year.

That came as a slight shock to him. He had run away from Konoha almost a year ago. He wondered just what had changed. Was Iruka-sensei still giving his boring lectures? Were Shikamaru, Kiba, and Chouji doing alright? Who was Hokage now? What about the war? Naruto didn't know that much other then everyone was really jumpy since Konoha had attacked Iwa and it looked like the Third Ninja War had begun.

"WHADDA MEAN THERE ARE _NINE_ OF THEM!" a voice screamed from outside, it sounded like the psycho woman.

Naruto looked up from his thoughts and released that the rest must have been caught. Well, at least their slavery would clean. He stood up and went to the door, he wanted to see just what was going on.

The psycho woman was looking at all the children with a sort of horrified shock. She was leaning against one of the walls. She looked up at the black-haired girl that Naruto had seen earlier. She was holding a small pig that was snorting strangely as it wiggled to be let go. Sasuke, Kimimaro, Sakura, Hinata, Neji, Haku, Gaara, and Sai were all standing in a group each with a rope around their necks that the black-haired girl was holding.

"You're sure you didn't accidentally pick up most of them by mistake?" she asked.

"Where's Naruto!" Sasuke said loudly, planting himself right infront of the woman with his arms crossed and his legs a little apart.

"Yeah! What did you do to him!" Sakura said just as loudly.

"Even if we're all weaker then you, there are still eight of us, and since where smaller, we can get away from you easily," Sai said with a smile, "would you please tell us what you did to our friend?"

"If…you hurt…Naruto…I'll," Gaara looked simply dangerous, and Naruto was reminded of how he was before he had met them…almost about to snap.

"The most I've done with him, is given him a bath," the psycho cut off all of them, "Alright, so there are nine of the mudpuppies." She started to mutter things under her breath that Naruto couldn't hear, but had a good idea of what they were. Adults liked to do it when they were angry or something, but they always got made when he did it, "Now that I've brought them here, at least I'll give them a bath and a meal. Then they all go. I don't want that kid's luck that much. All of you! Baths! Now!"

Naruto ran back into the bath and pretended that he had been washing for a while, but he did get to hear one final thing as he retreated.

"Why are you two going into the girl's baths?"

"We're girls," Hinata's voice answered.

"…really?"

Naruto had to hold his breath to keep from laughing.

It turned out that they spent about three hours in the bath. Even Gaara was enjoying the feel of cleaning himself off. Naruto could here the sound of Hinata and Sakura giggling on the other side of the wooden wall that separated the men and women's baths. Naruto was amazed that he had that much dirt on him, and was even more amazed when he saw what Haku looked like with the layer of filth.

"Haku…you're prettier then Sakura-chan!"

Haku looked a little irritated.

"I am a boy…" He muttered.

"Are you sure?" Sai asked.

Haku glared at him, showing that he actually was capable of glaring.

"I don't have to prove anything to you,"

"This is a stupid conversation," Kimimaro pointed out, "We would know if he was a girl by this time."

Sasuke nodded his agreement.

"We all look kind of like girls," he pointed out, "I always used to fight Ka-san all the time about cutting my hair, but I understand now.

Gaara, who had been floating on his back for a while, sat up and looked around, "What should we do now?"

Naruto noticed that everyone was looking at him.

"I think we should wait," Naruto told them, "The psycho woman said that she was going to feed us, and we can escape if we need to. I'll just make a bunch of Kage Bushin and cause problems."

There were nods from everyone.

Naruto felt his stomach rumble and went to the pile of clothes and the corner where the scrolls were. The clothes hadn't lived up to being taken off and placed on a damp surface. Naruto picked up what was left of his shirt and stared at the gaping hole that hadn't been there before. He sighed and was about to put it on when he noticed that there were a bunch of two piece robes that were for the bathhouse guests. There was a simple uwagi and zubon of a grayish blue color that was held by a dark gray obi. Naruto dug around for a while until he found something that fit him, and tied the scroll to his back.

It had been a long time since Naruto had worn clean clothes and truthfully, it felt wonderful.

Naruto left first, knowing that the others would probably follow him. When he opened the door, he noticed that a young woman who was probably a worker was standing outside the door.

"Tsunade-sama has asked me to direct you to the room where you will be eating," she said politely, and gesturing towards the door that led to the guestrooms. Please go through there and enter the door at the end of the hall. Tsunade-sama should be there."

Naruto thanked her and followed her directions. From the sound of the door opening and shutting again, Naruto assumed that he was right in his assumption that the others would follow him.

The room was big enough for at least ten adults to be comfortable. The large windows showed the overcast sky and Naruto vaguely noticed a few light spots of rain. It was probably the best room in the house, and there was a large table in the center of the room. Unfortunately, there was no food on it yet. The psycho woman, who must have been 'Tsunade-sama', she was still in the same clothes, and stood up as the sliding door opened again to show the rest of the boys.

"Well, I guess that brownish gray weren't your actual hair colors. And here was me thinking that all of you were related somehow. The two girls are with Shizune, my assistant. She's cutting their hair, and you're going to get yours cut too. I can't even see what you look like, and if people are going to know that I gave you a bath and a meal, at least I can finish things by making you look something like normal kids."

She grabbed Naruto by the head and began cutting randomly with a kunai that had appeared in her hand. Naruto struggled at first, but when one of the cuts came way too close to his head, he stopped moving. While she was attacking his hair, Naruto noticed that the assistant had come in with Hinata and Sakura and was beckoning to the boys. Neji, Kimimaro, and Haku noticed and started to creep forwards. Gaara, Sasuke and Sai were too busy staring at Tsunade with horror to notice.

In an instant, she had let go of Naruto at grabbed the struggling Sasuke to give him the same treatment. Gaara and Sai were still staring with horrified fascination and Naruto ran off to see if there was somewhere for him to survey the damage.

Naruto able to see himself in the rain spattered glass of the window. His hair was standing up in spikes like it used to, and actually, Tsunade the psycho woman seemed to have known what she was doing. That was strange, Naruto thought, it had looked to him like she was just cutting randomly.

When Naruto looked over at Sasuke he wondered if it had just been luck. Sasuke's hair was sticking up at the back, giving him the look of a cockatoo. The again, that was how his parents had cut his hair…did this woman know instinctually how they had looked before they had run away?

The assistance, Shizune returned, but the only thing she had seemed to have done with the boys was trim their hair and tie it back. All three of them seemed pleased with this arrangement.

Hinata and Sakura were now both sporting short hair. Then again, before their baths it had been hard to tell if they did have short or long hair since he had knotted itself into a big ball, but he could see their eyes again. Their bangs had been so long before that it had almost been impossible to really see any of their faces.

"Everyone lets have a look at you," Tsunade said moving off to them and speaking in higher voice then usual, "My what pretty little…" her eyes took in the Hyuuga eyes, Naruto's whiskers, Gaara's rings, and Sakura's bright pick hair and something seemed to connect, "chil…dren…" She sat down very fast, "I need a drink, now!"

The assistant handed something to her, "I knew that you wouldn't want to drink in front of the children, so I've made some lemonade!"

Tsunade looked like she wanted to cry but refused to do it in public.

* * *

"Alright, assorted mudpuppies," Tsunade said over the meal, "it's story time."

They had all been silent ever since Tsunade had realized who they were. The meal had been brought in very soon and for while all they were doing was staring at their food or, in the case of Naruto, trying to inhale as much food as humanly possible.

Everyone looked up with what they were eating, and looked at each other.

"You're all going to tell me what you're doing here," Tsunade said in a sweet voice that somehow made Naruto know that if they didn't, there would be major problems, "Ok, who's the leader?"

They all raised their hands.

Tsunade's eye twitched.

"Who's the head leader?"

Naruto raised his hand.

"You?" Tsunade looked somewhat incredulous.

"Whadda mean 'me'!" Naruto said indignately, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage of Kohona!"

Tsunade snorted.

"What a stupid kid," she muttered, "talking about things like that. Only an idiot would what to be Hokage."

"I'm not an idiot!" Naruto yelled, jumping up, "The Old Man said I was his heir, and he wasn't stupid!"

"Sarutobi-sensei proclaimed some gaki his heir. That he must've been going senile before he was killed. I bet the counsel loved that."

"They didn't know," Sasuke muttered.

"The Sandaime was dying when he did it," Sai informed her.

Naruto and Sasuke both jumped Sai and forced him under the table.

"What did he say?" Tsunade had stood up and her eyes were very wide.

"Nothing," Neji said, "When he has nothing to say he talks nonsense."

Gaara and Haku nodded in agreement, but Kimimaro looked somewhat confused. Naruto realized with a little panic that although he had told him all about what had happened, he hadn't told him that they were being looked for. For some reason it had completely slipped his mind. It just hadn't seemed important at the time. It didn't seem like anyone really noticed them or that any adults were going to no. Only Hinata and Neji's eyes would betray them, and they were working on making a genjustu that would make their eyes appear brown, but at the moment all they could do was close their eyes or keep them down so that no one noticed. The long bangs had helped.

"Sarutobi-sensei was dying when you were made his heir…" she said thoughtfully, "You're saying that you saw him being killed by Rock nins and they didn't notice you?"

"There weren't any Rock nin to see," Sai's voice said under the table.

Sasuke sat on him.

"I read the report." Tsunade said, "Assassination by Rock nin. Danzou's a warmonger, but the old fossil wouldn't lie about that, even to get into a war with Iwa. I don't know what you kids are doing here, but your families are worried about you."

"No they're not," Kimimaro said, "Naruto and Sai don't have any parents, Hinata and Neji were disowned from their clan, Sasuke's family never really cared, Gaara's father tried to kill him, Haku's parents are dead, and my clan were killed in an attack on Kiri. Sakura's parents are the only ones who might have cared."

"So you ran off as some sign of protest, and you six helped to start a war that's already killed a lot of people," Tsunade looked disgusted.

Naruto felt rage boil in him. Not only had this woman said that the Sandaime was stupid, but was calling them liars.

"We didn't run away because we wanted to! All of us had to. Sakura-chan, Hinata, Neji, Sasuke, Sai and I saw the old man being killed by that Danzou guy. He wasn't killed by Rock nin! We saw it!"

"Shut up, Naruto!" Sasuke and Neji hissed, but Naruto wasn't listening.

"Ya want proof?" Naruto asked, "The old man told us to hide these scrolls!"

Naruto took off the Scroll of Sealing and started to wave it around in the air. Tsunade seemed to recognize it, because she made a grab for it. Naruto danced out of her reach, but was caught a moment later.

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune said looking over her shoulder, "is that really..?"

"Yes," she said, nodding, "It's the real Scroll of Seals, and those kids couldn't have gotten their hands on this without help. I assume that all of those scrolls came from Konoha?"

"Mine, Sakura-chan's, Hinata's Neji's, Sai's, and Gaara's. Sasuke's came from his aniki, and Kimimaro's came from the Kaguya library," Naruto ignored the murderous looks of the others.

The sound of the rain was the only thing that broke the silence of the room. Naruto had the feeling that Tsunade was thinking hard about something. Her eyes were extremely hard and she was looking at him, but didn't seem to really see him.

"So, what are you going to do?" she asked after a long time of staring.

"We're going to get stronger," Naruto told her, "Then we're going to go back to Konoha and stop Danzou, and I'm going to take over as Hokage!"

"You think that the nine of you can stop Danzou and the war machine he's building?" she asked scornfully.

"I don't care what it takes!" Naruto replied, "I won't ever take back my words! I promised the Old Man I'd be a Hokage like no one else! I'm going to be the greatest Hokage ever! I'll crush Danzou!"

"You know," Tsunade said her tone somewhat different, "you're a man, and a man never takes back his words…stop now…and we'll forget it, and Konoha. Konoha is corrupt you know…and it's not wrong not to want to be it's savior. Sarutobi-sensei was delirious. He didn't mean to make you say those things. Stop now, and forget what you saw, I'll even let you come with me...Konoha deserves its fate…"

There was dead silence in the room for a minute and then the room erupted with noise.

Naruto was yelling that he would never take back his word even if it meant that he had to die himself. Sasuke was yelling that if Naruto didn't keep his word, he would beat him up until he did. Sakura was both giving her confidence that Naruto would never break his word and threatening to kill him if he did. Neji was calling Tsunade a few very rude words. Sai was helping Neji. Hinata was telling Naruto that he didn't have to prove anything to this woman, and that they should just leave. Kimimaro was saying that this woman was testing them, and she wanted something. Haku and Shizune was telling all of them to settle down

"SHUT UP!" Tsunade's head seemed to get very large and there was a vein coming out on her forehead.

Dead silence reigned again.

"You brats are lucky I'm such a nice person," Tsunade said irritably, "I'm going to let you stay the night, and you," she pointed at Naruto, "would you like to make a little bet with me?"

"Bring it, Baa-chan!" Naruto yelled.

The vein appeared on Tsunade's forehead again, but she didn't act on it.

"Alright, gaki, if, by the time you're twelve, you've proven to me that you have to stuff to reach kage level, I'll acknowledge you as future Hokage, and I'll give you this necklace. If you haven't, you have to give it up being Hokage and never return to Konoha. Cause if you can't impress me, there's no way you could beat Danzou.

"You're on!" Naruto shouted back at her.

For a moment, Tsunade was reminded of Nawaki and Dan by Naruto's grin and constant yelling about being Hokage. Just for a moment. Maybe that was why she made that bet. These kids were infectious.

"You brats'll stay here tonight," Tsunade told them, "Shizune, let's go,"

Both woman left and closed the door.

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune began, "Do you mind if I ask a question?"

"What?"

"Why did you make that bet, I mean…we're not going to be seeing those children again are we?"

"Maybe we will, and maybe I'll help them a little. They're trash that Kohona wants to get rid of, and anything that Kohona hates already has some kudos with me."

"What about the other ones?"

"You mean the stays they picked up?" Tsunade shrugged, "I always heard that misery loved company, but I guess it's more that things that are miserable are magnetically attracted to each other."

"But…would you keep all nine of them?" Shizune looked rather worried.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet. I made the bet because I have nothing to lose, and because if that kid does try to take on Danzou and he and his friends aren't tough enough, they'll be killed the same as all those other people who've wasted their lives for an ideal that they couldn't possibly reach."

"And you don't want them to die?"

"What kind of monster do you think I am, Shizune?" Tsunade looked faintly amused.

"Gomenasai,"

* * *

The explosion of thunder jerked Tsunade awake from a dream of Dan. She hated those dreams so much. Tsunade was sure that it had something to do that that obnoxious kid who had been constantly shouting about being Hokage. She sat up and looked around. Another flash of lightning illuminated the room that she and Shizune were staying in. Shizune was sound asleep.

Tsunade stood up and crossed the room silently, not knowing what was bringing her into that room where the kids were sleeping. She pressed her hand against the sliding panel that divided to two rooms and hesitated. What was she worried about? She couldn't understand the nagging feeling that was gnawing at her. She had to see what was happening in that room.

The door moved silently and another flash accompanied by an even louder roar of thunder showed her the room.

The kids had all moved into a sort of pile, where they were whispering together in frightened voices. They didn't seem to notice that Tsunade was even there. For a moment she was frozen in the door, but in a spilt second she had crossed the floor.

"Sh," she whispered to one of them, the blonde one, Naruto, "It's just a storm,"

"Says you," Naruto mumbled, "the woman at the orphanaged always told me it was a monster that ate bad kids like me."

"We'll be fine," Sai's voice sounded a little tight, "We always were, and it's better now that we have one another."

Hinata sniffed, "Father would be disgusted with me…" she mumbled.

Tsunade was disgusted, and before she knew it she had drawn them all towards her.

"_Little child, Be not afraid.  
The rain pounds harsh against the glass  
Like an unwanted stranger  
There is no danger.  
I am here tonight,"_

At first Tsunade didn't recognize the voice, but then realized that it was hers. The kids stopped they whisperings almost immediately, but all of them, even the older ones were looking at her in a strange, almost longing yet afraid. She realized that some of the younger ones, like the pink haired girl had been crying._  
_

"_Little child,  
Be not afraid.  
Though thunder explodes  
And lightning flash  
Illuminates your tearstained face  
I am here tonight,_

_And someday you'll know  
That nature is so  
This same rain that draws you near me  
Falls on rivers and land  
And forests and sand  
Makes the beautiful world that you see  
In the morning."_

All of them had inched as close to her as they could, crowding each other to get near her. Tsunade had never known that so many kids could manage to get their heads in her lap. All of them had such hungry eyes. They were like abandoned kittens, she realized, starved for affection. She remembered what the pale one had said about their parents not wanting them. This was probably the first time that anyone had sung some of them a lullaby.

_  
"Little child,  
Be not afraid.  
The storm clouds mask your beloved moon  
And its candlelight beams  
Still keep pleasant dreams  
I am here tonight."  
_

Tsunade had made up this lullaby when she was younger for her brother. There was a genjustu in it to help someone sleep. Nawaki had been afraid of thunder to the point of near bedwetting, and it had been the only thing that helped. She had remembered that when her parents had been alive they had sung him to sleep in storms, and the night that they had been told that they had been killed on a mission, there had been a monstrous storm.

She had always thought that they had been what started it. When Nawaki died, she had sworn never to sing this again, but suddenly she was singing her lungs out to nine kids that had just come out of nowhere right to her._  
_

"_Little child,  
Be not afraid.  
The wind makes creatures of our trees  
And the branches to hands  
They're not real, understand  
And I am here tonight,_

_And someday you'll know  
That nature is so  
This same rain that draws you near me  
Falls on rivers and land  
And forest and sand  
Makes the beautiful world that you see  
In the morning."  
_

Already some of them were quiet, the rumble of the storm seemed forgotten as they closed their eyes. Hinata, the Hyuuga girl, had curled up and was smiling a little, Tsunade wondered if she was thinking of her mother.

"Nii-san?" Sasuke's sleepy voice asked, then he was silent.

Tsunade realized that she was stroking each of their heads in turn. They were all so small…had people really not cared about them?

"_For you know, once even I  
Was a little child  
And I was afraid,  
But a gentle someone always came  
To dry all my tears  
Trade sweet sleep the fears  
And to give a kiss goodnight."_

The Hyuuga boy was dead still with a small smile on his face.

Two of them were Jinchuuriki. It made sense for people to fear them so much, but was it really? This Naruto kid was the vessel for the Kyuubi, and he was hardly to be hated, aside from being load he was a good kid. Was it fair that these children were unwanted? Was if alright for someone to decide that that child was a wasted existence? Even when her parents had died, she had had Sarutobi, who had become like a father to her. What did these kids have?

_"Well, now I am grown,  
And these days have shown  
Rain's a part of how life goes,  
But it's dark and it's late,  
So I'll hold you and wait  
'til your frightened eyes do close,_

_And I hope that you'll know  
That nature is so  
This same rain that draws you near me  
Falls on rivers and land  
And forests and sand  
Makes the beautiful world that you see  
In the morning."_

Naruto's eyes had shut, and there were tears coming out of them, and he had gotten some of the fabric of Tsunade's shirt into a death grip. Tsunade smiled a little, and felt her necklace with her free hand. One of the older boys, the one with the dark hair and pretty face, was crying as well.

"Mommy," Sakura whispered, moving closer to her.

She looked at the faces of the other children and sighed, but she sang the last three lines of the song, knowing that they were both a comfort and a promise.

_"Everything's fine in the morning.  
The rain will be gone in the morning,  
But I'll still be here in the morning."_

Naruto sighed a little and the others moved closer to her, and Tsunade felt her heart, carefully frozen with years of practice and memories, melt. She wouldn't be able to

It had truly been the worst possible of omens.

* * *

**Omake:** Insomnia

Tsunade was broken from her revelry by Gaara stirring. He lifted up his head and looked shyly at her.

"That was a pretty song," he told her.

"You're supposed to be asleep," Tsunade said looking someone confused.

"Oh, I can't sleep," Gaara said softly, "The monster will eat my mind if I sleep. No one believes me, but it's true."

"I believe you," Tsunade assured him.

This was the vessel of Shikaku, and the seal on him was good for some kind of inanimate object, but not a person. She was surprised that this kid was as sane as he appeared. Most vessels were completely nuts from not being able to sleep. Then again, this kid had been pretty unstable when his friend had been threatened.

"Does being unconscious count as being asleep?" Tsunade asked smiling.

"I don't think so, because once I tripped and hit my head, and I didn't get eaten," Gaara told her thoughtfully.

"I see," Tsunade said.

Faster then Gaara's sand could react, she had touched a pressure point. Gaara's eyes rolled back into his head he fell forward. Tsunade caught him and smirked. This ought to solve the problem of this kid. While she couldn't do it very much, once a month ought to help this kid stay in his right mind.

"Sweet dreams, brat,"

* * *

_I'm sorry, but I couldn't help myself. I've had that scene in my head for a really long time, and it just seemed right. Also, I've been reading allot of Fruits Basket on the net, and I think that it put me in a fluffy kind of mood. This was the first time that I've written a scene like that, and I'd like to know how it sounded. I hope it wasn't too bad._

_As you can see, I'm really starting to mess with the canon, but really, the Sandaime was a really big deal, and since he's died when he's not supposed to be, things that should have happened won't happen, and things that shouldn't have happened will. _

_Notes:_

_Tsunade: I'm trying to keep some things canon, such as Naruto and Tsunade's relationship. Even with the other kids, she's going to see her brother and lover a little in Naruto, so she's always going to treat him different. In this, she made the bet because she saw these kids as future casualties of war, and judging by her actions in the canon, she hates war, and is probably angry at Danzou for bringing about another one. _

_Konoha: I'm using something as a model for Danzou's Konoha. Can you guess what it is?_

_Existance: Yeah, I'm harping on that a little, but so does the canon. I just want to continue in the tradition of the canon. That means that things that I consider really important are going to stay the same. _

_The song: It's called _Lullaby for a Stormy Night _by Vienna Teng. Lovely song. Look it up on You Tube, I'm sure you'll like it!_

_This chapter was a little different for me, and I hope it worked out. I'm also proud that I updated so quickly. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any thing to say, even 'this is probably the worst fanfiction ever made' tell me, and if it is the worst ever made…tell me how to improve it._

_Review!_


	6. Part 1: The Naming of Hakumei

_Author's Corner: Yes, we're reaching the end of Part 1. This is should be the second to last chapter of it, but I'm not sure. At most there are two more after this. This story is so fun to write. I'm looking forwards to Part 2 myself, so I really want this to be the second to last chapter. It's surprisingly difficult to write about such young characters. Just to tell all of you, I don't have a beta, this is mostly because my friends totally hate Naruto (can you imagine?), so I don't know anyone who'll do it. I'm not asking for a beta, I'm just explaining why there are occasionally problems and I want to thank everyone who is interested enough to catch some of my problems. _

_To all those who didn't guess: I'm using Nazi Germany and a little of Prussia under Bismarck as a model for Danzou's Konoha. There will be some differences, but that is the basic model._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra has no connection with Naruto, and she can't think of anything cute to say._

_**The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.**_

_**-**__**Japanese Proverb**_

* * *

Uchiha Itachi was one of the few actual ANBU left in Konoha. Although most of the Uchiha were in the Military Police, Itachi had been permitted to keep his position as ANBU captain.

He knew perfectly well why he was still ANBU. It was so that the ANBU would remain under control. The ANBU had been made up mostly of people who had supported the Sandaime's philosophy, and Danzou, who was opposed to it, should still have been unstable enough for the ANBU to remove him. Unfortunately, Danzou had wide popular support other then a very few, and that gave Danzou the edge. Just in case the ANBU did show itself to be a threat, Itachi was there as a spy to report to his father.

Those who didn't support Danzou had to keep their thoughts to themselves, or suffer not only the suspicion that the might be traitors from the Military Police, but the dislike of their fellow ninja and the civilians.

Itachi was on patrol duty around Konoha. It was a boring job, and even more tedious now that most even his squad had been discharged. It was only him, a woman named Uzuki Yugao, and a ROOT transfer who didn't seem to have a name other then 'Boar' on his squad. Even people like Hatake Kakashi and Tenzo had been discharged and made into Jonin.

He stopped at a point on top of the Hokage Monument, often called Hokage Mountain by some of the Academy Students. He had giving the orders for Yugao and Boar to meet him there once they had finished their rounds.

The village looked so peaceful that night. It was hard to tell that they were at war. Because there had been no attacks and few loses, Danzou was only growing in popularity. He appealed to the people's fear. If Iwa had been able to kill the man who was widely considered to be the greatest Hokage, what else would they do? Danzou's speeches were always brief, and surprisingly emotional. While the man himself never showed any, he seemed to be more then happy to exploit those of others, and with the Military Police behind him, few chose to oppose him.

After all, the Uchiha clan was the oldest in the village. The Hyuuga had come later after giving their aid very suddenly during a battle that would have destroyed Konoha only a few years after it had been created. The others had followed one by one, but the Uchiha had always been there. It gave them a degree of respectability, even though most ninja feared them slightly. If a clan of that kind of power was unanimously behind Danzou, how could he be anything but best for Konoha?

Itachi's eyes narrowed slightly and his hands clenched and unclenched.

But not all the Uchiha clan was behind him.

Itachi secretly hated the man.

He had been four, almost five, when Itachi had been forced to see battle. Even at that age, Itachi had been seen as a genius, and since his mother was pregnant with Sasuke, it was dicided that Itachi would take her place helping the Medic-nin. It had been the end of Itachi's childhood. Years afterwards, he would wake, screaming, from the memories of the blood, pain, and death that he had seen that day. Not everyone had been dead, and plenty were delirious. When he was trying to stop the bleeding of a man was obviously going to die no matter what he did, he stopped by the Yondaime himself. He had been furious that Itachi had been made to go out there, but the damage had been done.

Itachi hadn't understood at the age just why he had been made to go out there, and had tried to put up a good show of not crying for his father. Fugaku had seen his silence as control, and saw him to be the perfect weapon. Itachi's training began shortly after that, but he had been permanently changed.

The anger of the Yondaime had made an impression. He had heard him yelling at his father, asking him how he could stand himself after sending a child into that battle. Itachi had never heard himself being referred to that way, and it made him feel strange. To the Yondaime, it didn't matter if Itachi had the intellect of a teenager or even an adult, he was still a five year old boy who he had found wide eyed, shaking and drenched in blood. He was not the 'special' prodigy of the Uchiha clan. He was a child who had never been allowed to have a childhood.

Itachi made himself a promise that war would never come to Konoha if he had anything to say about it. There would be no other child like him.

That was half the reason that he had never practiced training with Sasuke. To him, it was just hastening the day when Sasuke would return home, wide eyed and shaking, covered in the blood of the man he had killed.

Danzou had brought war back again, and Itachi knew that it was just a matter of time until that nightmare returned to Konoha.

Also, there was something strange about the death of the Sandaime.

Itachi had known that the clan was planning a coup. He had been placed in the ANBU to pass top secret information to the clan. What they didn't know was that he was working for the Sandaime to nullify the clan. Things had been heating up, and there had even been talk among the Sandaime's advisors to simply kill of the Uchiha clan when things had suddenly quieted down. Itachi had been told to continue his job by both his parents are the Sandaime, and he had learned that his father and the elders had been speaking to Danzou about something.

After the death of the Sandaime, Itachi had found out that the ANBU who had been assigned to watch the area where he had been assassinated had been give a letter from what looked like the Sandaime's writing ordering them to patrol another sector of the city. After looking at the letter with the Sharingan, he had seen that there were several small but definite differences. The letter had been forged.

And all signs pointed to Danzou.

Then there was what had happened that night…

"Hello, Itachi-kun," a soft voice said to Itachi.

"Shisui," Itachi said softly, not showing any surprise that he was there.

Shisui, Itachi's best friend, was older then him. His black hair was cut to his neck with bangs that usually fell over his eyes. Itachi secretly thought that he was trying very hard to look like his father, but never voiced his opinion.

"I thought that you would come up here," Shisui told him.

"Why were you looking for me?" Itachi asked.

"Mostly just to talk," Shiusi shrugged, "You're not talking much to any one these days."

"No, I guess I'm not," Itachi agreed.

"Is there a reason? Is it Sasuke?"

Itachi truly missed his younger brother, and was completely irritated by the sentiment that his parents were receiving. They were being told how difficult this must for them when they had never cared if Sasuke fell over dead. He was nothing to them. Itachi was truly worried about him now. He had gotten out of Konoha, but had he been taken in? At first he had assured himself that that would be what happened, but now he wasn't so sure.

"That's one of many things," Itachi told him.

"Itachi, I'm not going to beat around anymore," Shisui crossed his arms, "the clan is getting more and more nervous because of your talk. You say stranger and stranger things everyday and everyday you're a little more withdrawn. I know that you cared about Sasuke, but the clan needs you now."

Itachi was silent for a while but then looked up at the sky. There was a full moon out and the night was warm, but there was a strange feeling of emptiness in his stomach. There was some sort of anticipation too. Something was going to happen. The moon had never looked further away then it did right then.

"Shisui…do you remember what we always said when we were younger? That we would change the Uchiha clan?"

Shisui nodded, "I do. I still will, but from the inside out. That's why I'm working so hard to keep on the elder's good side."

Itachi nodded slowly, "Is that why you've been following me for the last week?"

Shisui looked shocked, but shook it off, "It was just orders. You've really been worrying people…"

"And to get ahead it was necessary to keep tabs on a friend," Itachi sighed and turned to his friend, "Don't you see, Shisui? There's no way to change the clan from the inside out. The only people that he elders will allow to gain power are people who are just like them. You may not see it, but you've changed. Always speaking about what the clan needs when you know it's doing wrong. Look around you. Was that vendor you arrested today a threat? The man's Chakra system had never been used, he had no visible signs that he had ever used a kunai, and he had never been out of the city in his life other then once. How could this man possibly be a spy? But you refuse to see things the way they are, and you slowly change and actually believe in the things you say to the elders."

"What do you suggest?" Shisui's voice was somewhat dangerous, but Itachi ignored him.

"To change something there are only two ways to go about it. The first is to eliminate the entire structure and rebuild it. The second is to eliminate the leaders of the structure and fill the power vacuum yourself. There is no way to change something from the inside unless you have been carefully placing your own subordinates into positions of power, and the elders won't allow you the position to do that until you completely believe in the system."

"So you're going to go against the clan?" he asked.

"…I've lost all faith in this pathetic clan," Itachi said quietly and prepared himself, "I know that you were sent here to kill me if I prove disloyal to the clan, but I don't want to fight you, Shisui."

"I'm sorry, Itachi, but you are a threat to the Uchiha clan. I don't understand why you of all people, the leader's son would do something like this, but it is my duty to kill you," Shisui didn't seem anywhere near as apologetic as the words he was using. Actually, there was a strange glee in his eyes.

"I will be overlooked," Itachi told him softly, "I don't have to disposition necessary to be the next head of the clan. Did they promise you that position, or was it Yumi?"

"SHUT UP!" Shisui yelled, throwing a barrage of kunai at Itachi.

Itachi dodged the attack and activated the Sharingan. Shisui was a genjutsu specialist, and he would have to have the Sharingan to know where he was. Shisui's special technique was to surround the target with bushin to confuse them and have them all seem to attack at the same time. That along with his other illusionary techniques has given of the name Shinkirou no Shisui, Shisui of the Mirage.

Those wouldn't work on Itachi, even without the Sharingan.

Itachi formed a series of seals and whispered, "Katon: Housenka,"

A series of small fireballs shot from his mouth all around him. Shisui jumped back and seemed to fade out of existence. Shisui was already using genjutsu, apparently he wasn't taking any risks. Itachi sensed his presence to his left and waited. He would probably use one of the family's fire techniques, which would be slow enough for him to dodge.

Shisui's presence changed. It was suddenly like there were about five of him. Kage Bushin? Itachi didn't know that Shisui had been able to make more then three. He had been training for this.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Shisui's voice yelled. From five directions, five huge balls of fire appeared.

"Suiton: Suijinheki," Itachi said, as he formed the pattern and inhaled.

Itachi breathed out and a complete sphere of water surrounded him. Itachi was a rarity in the ninja world, having both fire and water as his elements. Normally the two would cancel each other out, but for some reason, Itachi was able to use both.

Shisui appeared a moment later, looking drained. Apparently, Kage Bushin had taken a lot out of him.

"Shisui, stop," Itachi said, in one last try to change his mind, "I never intended to actively work against the clan."

"You yourself said that the only way to change the clan is to destroy it," Shisui accused.

"I did, and it's the truth, but such things always cause needless death in the process, and unlike the elders, I don't enjoy killing," Itachi was speaking more to him then he had to anyone in almost six months.

"How dare you talk about the elders like that!" Shisui said angrily.

"Does the truth offend you?" Itachi asked.

"Katon: Karyuu Endan," Shisui screamed, his voice histerical.

"Shisui don't!" Itachi cried.

It was too late.

He inhaled and breathed out. A huge blast in the shape of a dragon burst out of his mouth. That was one of the most powerful moves that the Uchiha clan had created, considered A if not S ranked, and it drained enough Chakra to prove it. Only S-class ninja should have used it, and Shisui was not S-class. Itachi could see that he was using almost all his energy into that attack.

"Forgive me, Shisui," Itachi whispered, his hands forming a new series of patterns, "But you've lift me no choice. Hijutsu: Mamori no Kagami."

For a second it looked it Itachi was surrounded by four mirrors which faced outwards like for walls. The fire dragon hit on of the walls and was absorbed into it. It came back out of the same mirror, facing Shisui and continued moving. Shisui raised his hands in defense, but it was no use. The dragon was moving too quickly.

Shisui didn't have time to scream.

All Itachi knew was that one second Shisui was facing his own attack, looking like he was going to try to defend himself and the next he was lying on the ground, unmoving and there was a strange tingling feeling in Itachi's eyes.

For a moment all Itachi could do was stare at the body of his best friend in a sort of calm horror, but the sound of a footstep broke him from his numb feelings.

"What have you done?" Uchiha Yashiro, surrounded by a small group from the Military Police appeared, "When Boar told us that there was a battle going on between Shisui and a traitor, I never dreamed that it would be you."

"I didn't-" Itachi started.

"Murderer!" an unfamiliar voice yelled.

"KILL HIM!" someone else in the crowd yelled.

"Do you really want to fight me, Yashino-san?" Itachi asked as his Sharingan morphed, "Would you match your capacity against mine?"

It was immediate. They looked into Itachi's eyes and collapsed. They were still breathing, but the stare was fixed and glassy. Their minds were already trapped in a world where time and space were controlled by the user of the Mangekyo Sharingan.

The next day, a small fraction of the Konoha Military Police force was found on top of the Hokage Monument. They were all dead.

The one who was labeled as a prodigy among prodigies had become a Missing Nin.

* * *

Naruto was the first of the group to wake up. For a while he was completely disoriented to be sleeping in a room and a part of his wrote it off as a dream. He sat up and looked around. He was in a pile with the others. Even Gaara looked like he was asleep. (Some monster, Naruto thought.) Naruto eased himself away from the group, trying not to move Hinata's arm any more then he had to. He stood up and moved towards the door, opening it a crack. He stopped when he heard the sound of Tsunade's voice.

"-talk to him." Tsunade's voice said.

"I know but…do we have to?" Shizune didn't sound all that happy, "I mean, we've fed them and bathed them, why can't we just let them go?"

"And go die in a ditch somewhere? Or grow up knowing that the whole world is out to get them? All of those kids have the potential to be powerful. Since they've managed to live this long, I'm betting that they've been reading those scrolls that Sarutobi-sensei gave them. They'll be powerful enough by teaching themselves, but I honestly think that if I want to get Danzou back for killing Sarutobi-sensei, the best thing that I can do is see if those kids are worth anything. I can't train all nine mudpuppies alone, so, unfortunately, there's only one person I can trust with this," Tsunade sound like she was both very unhappy and a little annoyed.

"So…when are we going?" Shizune asked.

"As soon as the assorted mudpuppies are awake," Tsunade told her, "and the one who's listening can come in and eat breakfast."

Naruto jerked a little in surprise and opened the door all the way. He sat down and looked at the cereal on the table. Apparently, Tsunade had no interest in spending even more on a big meal after she had already given them a feast the night before.

Naruto decided that it was best not to say anything.

He poured his Ninja Puffs out and ate them in silence. Tsunade and Shizune seemed to be waiting for the others to wake up, and Naruto could sense that whatever that Tsunade was going to say wasn't something she wanted to say twice.

"So who exactly are you and you're little friends, and what can you do," Tsunade asked suddenly, "I know you, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Hyuuga Hinata and Neji, and that weird Sai kid, but who are the others?"

"Well, there's Gaara. He's from Suna. I don't have a clue who his dad is, but his mom died when Gaara was born, and he was living with his uncle. His uncle was sadistic. He tried to kill us, but we beat him and then he blew himself up. We all left Suna after that," Naruto rambled, "Then there's Haku. His parents were from little village, but his mom had a kekkei genkai. His dad found out and killed his mom. Haku killed his dad in self-defense. Then he ran away and met us. Kimimaro was hid away in the underground room by his family because he was the only Kaguya with a kekkei genkai. We got him out right before the clan attacked Kiri."

"That's it?" Shizune asked.

"Yeah…" Naruto shrugged.

"Naruto's a bad storyteller isn't he?" Sai asked as he opened the door.

"You're Danzou's former subordinate, right?" Tsunade asked, "Since when did they start betraying him?"

"They aren't, but I thought that it would be better for me if I left," Sai explained, "Danzou would have killed me."

Anything that Tsunade was going to say was interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the group, including a very content seeming Gaara, who sat down to eat. Sasuke looked completely unimpressed with the Ninja Puffs.

"I hate that kind of stuff," he said glaring at it.

"Why's that?" Tsunade was looking annoyed.

"Because it's gross,"

"Let me get this straight, you've been out in the wilderness, eating who-knows-what, and you still have preconceived notions of 'icky'?"

"…"

"Shut up and eat,"

"Or what?"

"You won't eat anything else until you eat that cereal. I'll just keep it and bring it out at every meal,"

Sasuke poured himself the Ninja Puffs.

Tsunade smirked.

"Alright, assorted Mudpuppies," she seemed to have grown fond of that name, "You are all very lucky, since I've decided that you're telling the truth and have decided out of the kindness of my heart to help you. You gaki are in so much danger it's not even funny. I can't believe you haven't been caught already. It must have had something to do with the filth on you. If you go out now, one of the many disguised groups of Konoha ninja will promptly take you back to face questioning, or kill you on the spot and use your death to create more war. I want to see if you have to stuff to stand against Danzou, so I'm going to train you, but as there are nine of you, each with very different needs, and one of me, I'm going to need help. We're going to go on a trip to see if we can find a...teammate of mine."

"Who is she?" Sakura asked.

"Unfortunately, it's a he," Tsunade grumbled.

"Old boyfriend?" Sai asked curiously.

"NO!" Tsunade nearly screamed, "There is no way on earth I would have anything to do with that disgusting man."

"That means she likes him," Sai whispered to Kimimaro, "I read that when a woman insults a man like that, it's a sign of her affection for him."

Kimimaro looked surprised.

"She must really like him then…" he said back.

Hinata and Sakura started to giggle.

Shizune, who heard, was biting her lip and looking at her teacher thoughtfully like somehow she just couldn't see something.

"When do we need to get ready?" Haku asked.

"We're leaving when you're done eating," Tsunade told them, "it's not like you have anything to pack."

* * *

Naruto had decided after the second day that traveling when you had money was a completely different thing then when you didn't.

They still traveled on foot, but now they were able to stop in inns or towns that had food and warm water. Things moved slowly, and it was nice to be able to go through a town without having to wonder who you were going to have to steal from to eat.

They didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular. They seemed to simply be moving in random directions. They would stop at an inn, ask some questions, and move on in a totally different direction then they had been going in. Naruto wondered if Tsunade had a clue where her boyfriend was, or if she was just looking at random towns hoping to find some sign of him.

While they traveled they also had to work on training.

Tsunade didn't seem to think that just because they were looking for someone meant that they were going to take a break in training. If anything, things got tougher in that regard. Tsunade wasn't interested in them learning new techniques, she wanted them to develop the control needed to use the techniques.

Naruto learned very quickly that he couldn't do anything that required only a little Chakra and a lot of control. Tsunade said that it was because he had simply too much for it to work, but that didn't stop her.

Naruto not only had to work on wall and water walking, but he also had to learn how to make up to ten clones of himself at a time, without any problem (sometimes he still got halves). Everyone had been annoyed when Neji, Hinata and Sakura had mastered wall and water walking after only two weeks, while the rest were still having trouble. Tsunade had told them that it was because that the three had more control then the others, and that the point of this was to give all of them control.

It had been almost a month since they had started out and Naruto had finally gotten the hang of water walking. He had been the last one to do it, and had been teased quite a bit until Tsunade got tired of hearing it.

"Alright, gaki," she said with a somewhat sadistic grin, "If you think that Naruto's such a loser, I want all of you to produce five Kage Bushin Each. That's only half of what I have Naruto do, so it ought to be easy right?"

Hinata raised her hand.

"I wasn't teasing Naruto-kun!" she protested.

"You still should know," Tsunade dismissed her, "Start now,"

Everyone made the sign that they were so used to watching Naruto make and yelled, "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" at the top of their voices. There was a resounding pop, and Naruto got a good look at his friends.

Sakura was looking somewhat sick, with one clone, also looking like it was going to puke swaying next to her. Hinata had sunk to the ground with two exhausted clones next to her. Sasuke had managed two clones also, but all three of them were on their backs, barely conscious. Neji had the largest, totaling at three, but they were only there for an instant, and he was down. Gaara only had one, and it looked more like a mass of sand then anything else. He actually looked rather pleased with himself. Sai didn't have any, though it wasn't from lack of trying. He looked like he would pass out any moment. Haku had two, sick, but they looked like they could fight. Kimimaro only had one, thought it seemed healthy.

"What have we learned, Mudpuppies?" Tsunade asked.

"Kage Bushin is the world's most chakra draining technique," Sai moaned.

"No," Shizune said with a small smile, "you guys learned that just because that someone is bad at something doesn't mean that their not good at something else. Many people who can be geniuses at one thing while being complete morons at another. Naruto had unleash attacks that no one else could, but in exchange, he can't do the more simple things."

That was the last time that Naruto, or anyone, was teased. Tsunade didn't seem to have the patience for it.

It had already been a week since then, and they were now traveling towards some a mountain who's name Naruto didn't bother to remember. They had been traveling all day, and it was starting to get dark. Kimimaro, who seemed to be developing a somewhat warped sense of humor, was telling Sai about the ghosts that had existed in the Kaguya place. Sai, who still had a habit of believing people, was looked a little freaked out. Sasuke was making gagging noises to express his lack of fear of a woman with a stretched out neck that liked to bite people.

"Can we stop?" Hinata asked, "We've been walking all day, and I don't think that stopping now will hurt us."

"I agree," Haku mumbled, "I think everyone's tired."

It was true. Everyone was starting to look like they were ready to drop. Tsunade looked around at the sleepy eyes and yawns of most of the group, excluding Gaara who just looked like he wanted to sit down, and sighed. She didn't seem to want to stop yet.

"Alright, Sasuke, like the fire, the rest of you sit down," she ordered.

Naruto blinked in surprise. Usually, Tsunade had them getting firewood, cooking or training. She looked like she was thinking about doing something, and like it was against her better judgment to do it. Naruto sat down with the others as Sasuke lit the fire.

"Ok, mudpuppies, it's story time again," Tsunade grumbled, "but this time, I'm going to tell the story."

There were some blank stares.

"You can at least be grateful, you know, I don't really like to do this," she grumbled.

"That depends on if it's a good story or not," Neji grumbled.

Sai nodded.

"If it stinks we get to say it does," he told her.

Tsunade looked like she wanted to punch him, but refused to allow a seven year old to get her that angry. She settled for having a vein appear on her forehead.

"What's it about?" Hinata asked curiously.

"Is it something you read or made up?" Sakura asked.

"Or is it one of those history lessons that pretend to be a story like the ones Aniki used to tell me," Sasuke asked.

"It's about three ninja," Tsunade told them, "Two boys and a girl. The girl was from a very important family and she had a tremendous amount expected from her. She worked as hard as she could, but deep down she feared that she just wasn't good enough. One of the boys was from a wealthy civilian family that looked down on what their son was doing. He just grinned at them and did it anyways, knowing that the time would come when they would be proud of him. The other boy's parents had died in battle when he was very young, and he had never forgiving those who killed them. He was considered a genius among geniuses, yet no one noticed the lonely child who missed his family more then anything. They went to the same school as the others, but they never really spoke to one another. They moved through different worlds. A girl who would never live up to her families expectations, a deadlast, womanizer kid who's family sneered at him, and a genius who everyone saw as a hope for the future. Those were tough times, since the village that they lived in was at war. Growing up during that time meant to live with the fear of raids, and the constant attacks that were made, and it wasn't easy for any of them, but with one thing or another, they made it to Genin. They were placed on the same team together, but at first nothing changed. The team would only work together when they were in danger, but otherwise they were always fighting. The deadlast would flirt with the girl, she would hit him, the genius would insult the deadlast, and he would try to pick a fight."

"Sounds like my family," Sasuke mumbled, "I sometimes felt like I had hundreds of cousins and three million aunts and uncles…and they're always fighting about something."

"Don't interrupt!" Sakura said angrily.

"Anyways…nothing changed until the Chuunin Exams. They had entered, all confident in their abilities, but nothing had prepared them for the all out war that they had experienced. At one point, when the genius had been poisoned, it looked like everything was lost, but the girl, who had been shown things by her more lenient grandfather, found the correct herbs to make an antidote, and the deadlast showed just how brave he really was, protecting them both while she made and applied the antidote."

"After that, the things changed. Although they didn't make Chuunin until a year later, they became a team. When they were promoted, they celebrated together. When the girl's brother and later her lover were killed, they stayed with her, and let her cry. At the anniversary of the genius's parent's deaths they all brought flowers to their graves. When the deadlast was disowned, they went out with him and carried him home when he had drunk himself into a stupor. Though the fights continued, the malice had left them. Dysfunctional though they were, they had become a family. The father was their sensei, and the three made up the siblings. And even though their problems had never disappeared, they had somehow become less of a burden when shared with the others. As time grew on they became legends. They were known as the Legendary Sannin, if only things could have stayed that way…"

"What happened?" Kimimaro asked, leaning forwards and looking fascinated.

"…Everything just fell apart I guess. The genius tried to became the Kage of his village, but was refused by his own teacher in favor of another. That was what was considered to be the beginning. After an attack from a monstrous creature, the genius began to act strangely, separating himself from his friends, and going off alone. Later they found that he was doing experiments on people. He escaped punishment, and became an S-class Missing Nin. After that, the other two had had enough. The deadlast, now a respected ninja took to wandering, only returning to his old home when he thought that he would be needed. The girl, who was now a brokenhearted woman, left the village where she had grown up, swearing never to set foot in the town that had killed and corrupted her loved ones again. Days and months and years passed, but the Sannin, who had once been family, were never all together again. If that ever did happen…it would be in a fight to the death."

"This story is a warning to all of you. You call yourselves a family, and right now you believe it. Stay this way. All of you. Don't let your ambitions or your fears or stupid little wounds that never heal break you apart. Because if you do…you'll regret it until you finally die. You're lives will be empty, and constantly plagued by what might have been. Don't let your own foolishness destroy you."

Tsunade stood up and turned around. They weren't able to see the expression on her face, but her tone was enough to have silenced any questions.

"Go to bed," she commanded all of them, "that was your training for tonight."

* * *

Naruto didn't know just how long he had been asleep or what woke him up, but suddenly his eyes were open and he was listening for something. Gaara was tensed up slightly and jumped a little when Naruto moved.

"Did you hear it too?" Gaara asked.

"Hear what?" Naruto cocked his head.

"It sounded like there was something moving out there. I don't know what it was…maybe it was just an animal…"

The hair on the back of Naruto's neck began to rise, and he noticed that the others all had open eyes as well.

"I don't think it's an animal…" Kimimaro whispered.

A twig snapped.

"ATTACK!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs, "KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!"

Ten Narutos appeared in a puff of smoke and led the way into the forest. He didn't see Tsunade or Shizune but didn't really think of them at the moment. What was important was that there was someone here who would hurt them. He heard the sound of the others running behind him, all getting ready to use their own attacks. Naruto saw the forms of three, maybe four people, and jumped.

The other clones moved with him, and Naruto was kicking and punching a very large man as best he could. The man seemed surprised by the initial attack, but that was wearing off and he was starting to rip the clones away as fast as he could. A large lion/dog thing was starting to attack the man's right leg and what looked like a combination of a turtle and a scorpion was attacking the left.

"Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu!" Naruto heard Sasuke yelling, he must have been working on that in secret for a while sense the flames that came out of his mouth were fairly large and were making another man back away into a barrage of senbon that Haku had thrown.

Hinata and Sakura were both attacking a large, squat man, who were holding a particularly vicious looking club with spikes all around it, but they weren't fairing as well as the boys. Since both girls were short range fighters, they had no way of attacking the man without getting into the range of his club.

Kimimaro and Gaara were doing fairly well against a small, sneaky looking man. He had a bone out and was using it as a sword, and every time the small man tried to land blow with the staff he carried, it was repelled by Gaara's sand.

Naruto felt the man's hand close on the scruff of his shirt, and a second later he was sent flying into a tree. The blow sent a burst of pain through him and his body wasn't listening to his command to stand up.

"NARUTO-KUN!" Hinata yelled, not paying attention and getting hit by the club. She flew back about five feet and clutched at her arm, where blood was blossoming over her shirt.

Everything seemed numb as he watched his friends try to get near him while being battered by the three men. After losing the element of surprise, they were being badly beaten.

Come on, Naruto screamed to his body, get up! I can't die here.

"You're friend's dead, gakis," the big man said with a grin after sending a punch that had left Sai crumpled on the ground, "Too bad for him. I guess this is why kids shouldn't be out after dark. We were going to just beat you half to death and take your money, but you've made me mad…too bad for you."

"…I'm not dead yet…" Naruto hissed slowly as he shakily got to his feet, "…I definitely won't die here…"

"What?" one of them hissed, "That should have killed him out right."

There was something running through Naruto's head, everything seemed to be covered in a red haze, and somewhere he felt something pushing at the back of his mind. It hurt a little, but he ignored it.

"That's enough," a woman's voice said calmly.

Naruto turned around, the haze vanishing, and saw Tsunade and Shizune standing in the midst of the men.

"The guys who attacked from the other direction are dead," Shizune said calmly, "Please surrender now."

"Don't listen to them, men!" the man Naruto had fought yelled as he charged forwards, "She's just trying to scare us."

Something hit Naruto in the back of the head, and a second later he was falling into blackness.

_The only sound was the dripping of water. _

_Naruto looked around. He was in what looked in the sewers of Konoha. He had played there before, mostly for the fun of it and sometimes so that he wouldn't have to see anything. This was somewhat different though. The place had water leaking somewhere and the lights were dim. There was something unfocused about the entire place. _

_Naruto took a step forwards and another. He waded through the water until he had reached a fork in the hallway. _

_Had he been there before?_

_Was he dreaming?_

_Was he dead?_

_If this was death, the afterlife was boring. _

_Naruto walked down the turn and found himself in a large room. There was a large empty space that led to a large ornate looking cage. On the door there was a single paper seal, and something told Naruto that he must never, ever touch it._

_There was something in the cage._

_**So, my host visits me at last...oh, how I would love to eat you…**_

_Two huge, red, hideous eyes, filled with nothing but malice, hatred, and an unholy hunger glared out at him._

_Naruto tried to scream and back up but his feet wouldn't move. He wanted to run away, he wanted to cry out for help, but his body wasn't obeying him. He felt totally numb with horror._

_**Come here…**_

_Naruto's feet took a step of their own accord._

"Naruto-kun!"

Naruto's eyes snapped open and he thrashed around wildly, looking for the monstrous _thing_ that had been there.

He was lying on his back under the tree that he had hit, with everyone standing around him. For a moment, he found himself completely disoriented by all the faces around him, but he was fine in a moment. They all looked a little tired, but alright. Hinata wasn't holding her arm anymore, but there was still blood on her.

"It's alright, Naruto," Kimimaro was saying, "Tsunade saved us and healed you and Hinata. Sai was just winded."

"That smack in the head must have really hurt," Sai added, "but it doesn't look like the wound's even there anymore."

"Are you feeling alright, Naruto-kun?" Haku asked.

"He's fine," Neji grumbled.

"It takes more then some washed out thief to get one of us," Sasuke agreed.

"You, gakis were completely irresponsible!" Tsunade's angry voice cut into their conversation. Naruto turned to see her. He had seen Tsunade angry before, but not like this. Her eyes were slits and her arms were folded, and there was fury radiating from her.

"Did you stop to think that they could have killed you!" she continued, "No, you just dashed in! That was the most stupid, foolhearted, thoughtless thing I've ever seen anyone, even your age, do…and I'm glad you did."

Everyone stared at her. Tsunade's expression softened just a little.

"If you guys hadn't distracted those guys while you did, things would have been a lot messier for Shizune and me. I guess I should say that you acted like real ninja," she smiled a bit at them but her expression hardened again almost immediately, "but don't you dare do it again."

"Ah, come on," Naruto grinned, putting his arms behind his head, "We rocked and you know it! We're going to be the greatest ninja group in the world!"

"Then you need a name," Shizune said with a small smile at Tsunade, "Tsunade-sama, don't you think you should give them at least that as a reward? Besides, they can't be called by their last names all the time…they'll be noticed in no time."

"Hm…I guess they did well enough to have an official name," Tsunade was smirking a little, like she was amused by the whole thing, "kids get a thrill from that kind of thing. I guess it would be a waste to give them 'special' names when their older and not quite so impressed by it. Alright, Mudpuppies, you want to be the end of Danzou? Fine, from this day on, you are Hakumei, the twilight of your enemies. You will call yourselves that, or I won't teach you. Also, I'm going to give you each new names."

She walked up and put her hands on Gaara's shoulders.

"You are now Sabaku no Gaara," she said and turned to each in turn and put her hands on their shoulders.

"Haka no Kimimaro."

"Shin'en no Sai,"

"Rasen no Neji,"

"Hara no Haku,"

"Gesshoku no Hinata,"

"Nisshoku no Sakura,"

"Arashi no Sasuke,"

Finally she turned to Naruto and smirked a little. For a second he thought he heard her mutter something like "Kushina, Minato, I'm sure you're very proud" then her hands were on his shoulders.

"Shippuu no Naruto,"

"Shippuu no Naruto," Naruto repeated. It sounded different. Good, but different. Then he looked up and grinned, "Does this mean I win the bet?" he asked.

"Not on you life, gaki," she smirked, "I said you could be real ninja, but I didn't saw anything about being S-rank. You still have long way to go to prove that theory."

"Aw, but-"

"No buts, go to bed," Tsunade commanded.

As the little group walked back to camp, Tsunade put her hand on her necklace, the crystal felt cool and comforting in her hands.

"Not yet, Naruto, I won't let another wear this thing until I'm sure their Hokage material…I won't let any other person die…besides…if you do win this thing, I'm going to have to break my oath…"

* * *

**Omake:** So We Meet Again…

Anko glared at the students in the class with particular venom. She had been chosen to show these nasty little snot nosed brats some basic summoning and taijustu. The brats all stared back at other, other then a kid in the back who was sleeping.

"So, where's the teacher?" Anko asked, looking around.

"Iruka-sensei'll be here in a second," a boy with tattoos on his face told her, "He's busy at the moment."

There were some giggles in the class. That told Anko that whatever he was 'busy' with probably involved them somehow. She prayed that she would manage to get away from the little monsters before they could do anything to her.

The door opened and Anko turned to see…the Chuunin who had passed out in her lap the one time at that bar and drooled all over her.

'So, we meet again…' she thought as he walked into the center of the classroom.

"Hello, Anko-san, I see you've met the children," he said in a friendly way, not seeing the look Anko was giving him.

"Oh, yeah, I've met them little…darlings…" Anko struggled at that word.

"You know you're supposed to give a demonstration," he told her.

"I need a partner," Anko said, her eyes glinting, "I think you'll be a good punching bag…"

Iruka spent a very exciting afternoon being chased by a young, attractive woman who was throwing kunai at him, attempting to beat him to a bloody pulp, and trying to feed him to her giant snake.

* * *

_This has been more of a 'mess with the plot' chapter then the others. There is obviously no Uchiha massacre, but Itachi is still a missing nin. Trust me; you guys are going to see just why they needed to be killed off in this story. There's also more fighting, and I hope the fight scenes were good enough. I don't think that I'm all that good at them. I just can't get them to last. Hopefully, I'll get better as time goes on._

_Additional Notes:_

_Tsunade's Story: Can you see what's different between it and the canon? There are a few small things and one fairly large thing. _

_Itachi: I'm trying to keep him somewhat in character, but he's both really fun and really hard to write. I hope I did well. The thing with the scars is just a theory. I mean, I have no idea what those marks down his face are, but he's had them forever, so I'm assuming that their something like scars…_

_References: I made a reference (possibly more) to a certain anime somewhere in this chapter. Can you guess where the it was and what the anime is?_

_Translations:_

_Katon: Karyuu Endan__(Fire Element: Fire Dragon Flame Blast)  
_

_A jutsu that sends a stream of fire towards the opponent, in the shape of a large dragon, from the users mouth. _

_Katon: Housenka__(Fire Element: Mythical Fire Flower)_

_A jutsu that sends multiple blasts of fire from the mouth, usually with one target in mind. Shurikens can also be hidden inside the flames, creating an element of surprise _

_Suiton: Suijinheki__ (__Water Element: Water Barrier Wall)  
_

_Creates a blast of water from the mouth, usually used to block fire type attacks._

_Hijutsu: Mamori no Kagami (Secret Technique: Mirror Defense)_

_A jutsu that causes four mirrors to surround the user. All attacks used against it will rebound upon the originator or the attack. Uses a tremendous amount of chakra. (Original jutsu) _

_Hakumei: Twilight_

_Sabaku no Gaara: Gaara of the Desert_

_Haka no Kimimaro: Kimimaro of the tomb_

_Shin'en no Sai: Sai of the Abyss_

_Rasen no Neji: Neji of the Spiral_

_Hara no Haku: Haku of the Tundra_

_Gesshoku no Hinata: Hinata of the Lunar Eclipse_

_Nisshoku no Sakura: Sakura of the Solar Eclipse_

_Arashi no Sasuke: Sasuke of the Tempest_

_Shippuu no Naruto: Naruto of the Hurricane._

_I'm not sure if these are perfect translations or not. I'm using a dictionary, so I think this is right. If I've messed up please tell me, and tell me what you think anyways…_

_Thanks for reading, and please review!_


	7. Part 1: Hermits and Choices

_Author's Corner: As you all can see from the last chapter, I'm not a fan of a benevolent Kyuubi. I'm very pro-canon on that issue. Kyuubi has done nothing but cause problems, and even when Naruto uses its power, he is constantly being hurt by it. All in all, I think that the only difference between Kyuubi and Shikaku, is that Shikaku is hyperactively psychotic and Kyuubi is just psychotic. _

_This is the last chapter in Part 1. Aren't you guys excited? I've been looking forwards to Part 2, so I am._

_Random Note: I changed the bit about Itachi's marks in the last chapter. Someone told me they were just birthmarks, and I had a better idea then the scars…_

_To those who didn't guess: The reference was when Itachi was talking to Shisui about how nothing can be changed from the inside and the anime is Code Geass. If you get past certain irritating parts, it's a fairly interesting anime. Also, the things that are wrong with Tsunade's story are that most importantly: Orochimaru never comforted Tsunade when her brother died, actually he seemed rather amused, and the Sannin's Chuunin Exams are never mentioned, I just made that up. Yes, I have a reason for doing this._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra doesn't own Naruto. If she did, Sakura would have never been a fangirl, and Sasuke would have gotten some of Naruto's 'instant therapy' early on._

_**"There are three things men can do with women: love them, suffer for them, or turn them into literature." **_

_**-****Stephen Stills**_

* * *

"This is a hermitage?" Kimimaro asked, looking surprised.

"Our place looked like a dump compared to this," Neji grumbled.

"It's not a hermitage," Gaara said admiringly, "It's a palace!"

Naruto had to agree.

They had been forced to climb a fairly large and very steep mountain. It had taken about three days to do it, and all they had expected a small hut or even a house waiting for them at the top when they heard that Tsunade's old teammate was a hermit. What they saw had all nine children wondering just what the purpose was in working if they could be hermits and live in houses that put daimyo's castle to shame.

The house was huge and brightly colored with ornate gold designs crafted all around it. Two stone frogs about the size of ponies sat at the entrance. Marble steps led up to a pair of ornate and extremely large red doors. Everything about the house was grand and out of place for a hermit's hut.

"Some hermit," Sasuke said bluntly.

Naruto nodded.

He had been a little quieter then usual after the fight in the forest. It wasn't that he was unhappy about anything that had happened while they were there, actually he was very happy with his new name, and thought that the others' suited them as well. The dream that he had had stuck in his mind. The monstrous creature that had been in that cage stayed in his memory, and it didn't fade like most dreams did. Every night he had been having trouble sleeping because, like Gaara, he was afraid that if he slept, something bad would happen to him. Sleep would win out in the end, but he was always worried that the next time would be his last.

He looked normal, and tried to act like nothing was wrong, but he couldn't help quiet. It wasn't really noticeable anyways, after all, everyone was more quiet then usual since they had all been climbing a large mountain.

"Is he home?" Naruto asked.

"I don't think so…" Hinata said, "I don't sense any Chakra signatures."

"Aw crud, so now what do we do?" Sakura complained, "I don't to go down that stupid mountain! We already went up it."

"Well, it should be faster going down then it was going up," Sai told her with a smile.

"I don't want to go down!" Sakura almost yelled in his face.

"You're not going down that mountain again for a while," Tsunade told them all, "Eventually, he's going to come back here, if he's not here now and just wandering around in the wilderness confirming some stupid little superiority complex. He'll come back to this house, and will be waiting for him."

Naruto thought he heard her mutter something like: "and in the meantime, I get some saki…" and saw a slightly gloating smile on her face.

The look that Shizune was giving her master told Naruto that there was no way on this earth that she was going to have any sake. Naruto didn't even know what was so wonderful about the stuff. He had tried some once when it was spilled, and he had found it slightly revolting.

He wondered if he had just had some bad sake.

"Come on, mudpuppies," Tsunade called, "There'll be some food and nice beds in there, but don't poke around too much, and stay out of the library for the sake of your sanity and innocence."

"What?" Haku looked very confused.

"Don't ask, and obey me," Tsunade told him, "Trust me, you'll thank me for this."

Haku shrugged and looked like he was going to go along with it.

The members of Hakumei followed Tsunade and her assistant up the stairs.

It was strange to think of themselves as members of Hakumei. Suddenly, they weren't just a group of wandering kids who had more worried about surviving until the next morning then anything else. They were an actual group, and they were being treated like ninja in training. It was strange, they were taking themselves more seriously now and applying themselves even more to their training.

Everyone seemed to like their new names; for one thing, it distanced them from their families, since all almost all of them had had rotten lives. It gave Sasuke, Neji and Hinata an identity outside of their clans. It gave Gaara, Sai, and Naruto a true connection to the rest of them other then the fact that they all traveled together. It helped Haku and Kimimaro a way to forget the wrongs done to them.

Tsunade threw open the doors and Naruto took a few quick steps and stopped. His mouth fell open and he blinked a few times.

It was even more grandiose inside then it was on the outside.

The floors were all made of a deep mahogany, and the borders of the walls looked like they were made of solid gold. The stone walls and the ceiling that was carved with toads and what looked like heroes rescuing maidens, was only somewhat more grand then the furniture. Everything was made from expensive woods with gold and sometimes jewels inlayed in them.

"He's even more vulgar then I remember," Tsunade grumbled.

"You didn't say that your teammate was an emperor," Hinata said, looking very impressed.

"He's only the emperor of the fools," Tsunade told her, "When you see him, he's going to try to impress you with a stupid little dance that he does. Don't look at all impressed, or he'll keep on doing it. I want to break him of that stupid habit."

"He does a dance?" Kimimaro asked incredulously.

"More of a hopping thing," Tsunade admitted.

"Why?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Who knows," Tsunade told him.

"I think it has something to do with the fact that he was always teased when he was younger," Shizune told them.

"Oh, I read that that can make people do strange things," Sai agreed.

"Then he must have been really badly teased," Neji said looking around with disgust, "This is pathetic."

"I'm impressed," Naruto admitted.

"Alright," Tsunade said, leading them into one of the opulent living rooms, "Line up, Mudpuppies, we're about to have a long overdue physical examination. I'm going to assume that every single one of you has some kind of disease. So, one at a time, and we're going to find out just what's wrong with you and treat it. First, gaki, you're up,"

Naruto stood in front of Tsunade, who ran a complete exam on him. She didn't seem surprised when she found out that he had no sickness that wasn't worms or fleas. She simply assigned him to drink nothing but cranberry juice until she said otherwise and give him a soup that killed parasites.

Gaara went by just as fast, other then the additional statement that she would be knocking him out every so often. Gaara seemed happy about this, saying that the monster could eat him like that.

For the first time, Naruto truly believed him.

Neji was diagnosed with worms and fleas as well as a small cold and undernourishment. She was very interested in his forehead, where, according to her, there were Chakra signs that there used to be some kind of seal there. The mark seemed to have been removed forcibly, and Tsunade had thought that kind of thing was completely impossible.

Hinata almost gave Tsunade a heart attack when she activated the Tenshi Byakugen. Apparently, she couldn't use the normal Byakugen anymore. The fact that the Tenshi Byakugen wasn't supposed to exist had Tsunade in some sort of ecstasy. She was asking all sorts of questions about what the Tenshi Byakugen was and how it worked. It took about a half hour simply to drag her away from questioning poor Hinata.

Sai's physical was slightly boring. There was nothing wrong with him that Tsunade couldn't have seen from the very beginning. She dismissed him with some things for killing parasites, saying that if she saw him eat anything weird again, she'd murder him.

The only thing interesting about Sakura's physical was that Tsunade said that she had a tremendous about of potential, and that Tsunade would be sure to be the one to train her. After that, Sakura was dismissed.

Haku was probably the sickest of all of them, which was logical, since he had been out on his own for the longest of the group. He had plenty of parasites on him, and he also had a chronic cold that was threatening to turn itself into something much worse. Tsunade was surprised that he could have passed himself off as so healthy.

Sasuke's physical showed that after he was both sick and very cranky. He didn't want to be examined in front of everyone, and he let Tsunade know. Tsunade didn't really care, and she continued as usual. According to her, the only reason that he wasn't as sick as Haku was that he had as many tomatoes as he could have under the circumstances. That had allowed him to fight the sickness more then Haku, who didn't really like fruit much, and had allowed Sasuke to eat his share in exchange for something of Sasuke's.

When she reached Kimimaro, Tsunade looked shocked, shock her head, and congratulated him on seeing her.

"What's wrong with me?" Kimimaro asked, looking worried.

"It's an illness that only appears in families when kekkei genkai. It doesn't really have an official name, but people call it Tainted Blood."

"What is it?" Haku asked, looking upset.

"The closest thing to it is Hemophilia, but Tainted Blood progresses as the person ages. Apparently, Kimimaro hasn't begun to suffer from the effects, yet. This is a good thing, because I can cure it in its initial and medium stages, but I can't do a thing about it in the advanced stage. You're a lucky kid."

Tsunade put her hand on Kimimaro's chest and it began to glow. She stood there for about three minutes, staring intently at him.

"Alright," she said, she sounded out of breath, "It's done. You're now completely cured, and you never had to suffer from the effects of it."

"What's Hemophilia?" Naruto asked.

"It's when your blood doesn't scab and if you get cut or bruised, you bleed until you shrivel up," Sai told him.

"WHAT!?"

"Don't worry about, gaki," she told him, "I'll tell you more about it later, but right now, I want a break. That's not an easy cure to do, even for me."

"What's so special about her," Neji muttered under his breath.

"Did someone say something?"

"No,"

"Good, let's keep it that way," she muttered.

* * *

That night they all stayed in one room after Tsunade had had to spend a little over two hours trying to find everyone when they had gone off exploring. The house was enormous, and Naruto had to wonder just how many people this teammate usually had in his house. He couldn't possibly live in it by himself. How was he going to clean everything up?

Everyone, other then Gaara, was asleep by this time. There was a muffled groan as Neji kicked Kimimaro, who hadn't remembered to get away from him. Naruto heard the sound of Neji's gasp as something that was probably a surprisingly sharp bone poked him.

He turned around and stared at the window. There was a flash of something white, and Naruto sat up and ran to look out. He couldn't see a thing other then the trees and the sky. Naruto bit his lip and wondered if the thing that he had seen was going to appear to him in his waking life as well as that dream. He knew that Tsunade was strong, but this…thing…was more then just strong, it was almost invincible.

Something moved behind him, and Naruto noticed Gaara stand up, not noticing Naruto and sneak out of the room.

Out of sheer curiousity, Naruto followed. Gaara led him to the front door and outside. He walked down the steps and stopped at the clearing that was the front yard, looking up at the sky.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked.

Gaara jumped and turned around. He looked a little sheepish.

"I…When we were traveling, I liked to look up at the moon when because I couldn't sleep. I really wanted to see it for some reason tonight. It always calms the monster down. I don't like him. He's always trying to come out and kill everyone, so I have to stay awake. Tsunade-san was really nice and sometimes knocks me out, so I can rest without the monster hurting anyone."

"It's really real isn't it?" Naruto asked, "I…I didn't believe you at first…but I saw something when I was knocked out… it was a real monster."

"You did?" Gaara looked thrilled, "Was it huge? Did it want to eat you?"

"Yes…" Naruto replied hesitantly.

"Then I'm not alone." Gaara looked even more thrilled, "You have one too!" Then he looked somewhat annoyed, "but you can sleep. I guess yours is caught better then mine."

"What the devil are you two doing out here in the middle of the night?" the annoyed, rather tired voice of Tsunade cut into the conversation. She marched up, looking like she was going to pick them up and toss them both back inside, "Get to bed,"

"But," Gaara began, "I wanted to ask you something too…"

Tsunade didn't stop, "Tomorrow,"

"I don't want to ask in front of everyone," Gaara protested, "I didn't really want to ask in front of Naruto, but this is better then everyone."

"This had better be quick," Tsunade grumbled.

"What's pain like?" Gaara asked suddenly.

"What?" Tsunade and Naruto both asked at the same time.

"Well…my sand always protects me…and I've never been hurt…so I wanted to…what's it like?"

Tsunade looked at him thoughtfully, and walked over to where they were standing. She stopped and sat down on her knees so that she was face to face with Gaara.

"I never thought I would have to explain something like thing, but it makes sense. Pain is when your body tells you that there's something wrong with it. It's a very unpleasant feeling that makes you want to stop everything that you're doing and pay attention to it. It's sometimes unbearable, and sometimes it's only a small feeling," she explained patiently.

"I see…" Gaara looked thoughtful and looked at Naruto, "Do you hate me?"

"What?" Naruto was completely taken back by the question.

"Well, sometimes…when we trained…by sand would attack you, and you would sometimes bleed and cry out because it hurt…do you hate me?"

"Of course not!" Naruto said in an annoyed voice, "What kind of creep do you think I am? I asked you to train with me, and so did Neji and Sasuke. If we hadn't wanted to get hurt, we wouldn't train. Besides, it didn't hurt that long."

"What?" Gaara asked.

"Well," Tsunade took over, "People were meant to get hurt. That's just the way things are, so we were made with all the things we needed to stop hurting. Wounds heal, and then they don't hurt anymore. Also, there are people called Medics who learn how to make things heal that may not heal right normally."

"I think I understand," Gaara grabbed his chest, "When I was in Suna, there was always this pain here, but it wouldn't go away. It hurt so bad, and it hurt even more when I watched my brother and sister or the children playing…but when Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Neji, Sai, and Hinata came, that feeling went away…"

Tsunade smiled gently at him, "That's a kind of wound, but not one that you can get from a kunai or that your sand can give someone. It's a worse pain, and one that hurts more then any other. It's called loneliness. It's a pain that has been known to drive people insane, and even kill them. It stopped when the proper treatment, love and friendship, was giving to you. You're very lucky, Gaara, to have been given that cure. It's very hard to come by, and even more precious. It's a troublesome cure, and you must give the same thing to those who give it to you. You must acknowledge their existence the way they acknowledged yours."

Gaara was silent for a while and then nodded with a bright smile.

"I understand, Tsunade-san," he said, "and Naruto and I are the same, aren't we? We both have monsters, so neither of us is alone in that way either. Even if the others don't believe us, we know."

He seemed so happy about this that Naruto didn't have the heart to tell him that it was probably just a nightmare that he had had.

Tsunade looked long and hard at Naruto, and then back at Gaara.

"Gaara, go back to the others, I have something to talk to the gaki about, do you mind?" she asked.

"No," Gaara shook his head and wondered back to the mansion.

When the door closed behind him, Tsunade turned to Naruto.

"What monster?" she asked.

"Well…I…had a nightmare when I was knocked out." Naruto explained, "I was in this sewer, and there was a cage, and there was a monster in the cage. It said that it wanted to eat me, and it told me to come to it. I didn't want to, but my feet moved to it. I was so scared that it was going to kill me, but then I woke up, so…it was just a dream right?"

Tsunade looked up at the sky thoughtfully, then back at Naruto.

"Has anyone ever told you the story of the Yondaime and the Kyuubi?" she asked him.

"I heard the old bat at the orphanage told the kids about it once. The Yondaime was so cool! He killed a demon fox! It must have been really amazing to see!" Naruto told her with a grin.

"Yeah, that's what they would have said," Tsunade agreed, "But, the Kyuubi couldn't be killed, since it's not being kept alive the way most people are."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"In the world, there are special creatures with Chakra the same as we have. Those animals can speak in human languages and some can even turn into people. Some humans have been lucky enough to sign a contract with these creatures when they have proven themselves worthy of the friendship of these creatures. But they are much like humans in that there are good and bad ones. The nine Bijuu were once like the animals that we call summons. They were leaders of their kind, but they hated humanity. These creatures allowed their hatred to grow until it consumed them, and they were given a gift by Izamami, a goddess who had sworn to kill off mankind, and they were turned into living oceans of Chakra. They terrorized the world, causing natural disasters, and killing thousands. They exist to this day, in one form or another, and they are considered invincible. There is, however one thing that humanity could do."

"What's that," Naruto was fascinated with the story.

"There was a group of special seals that could force the Bijuu into a living person, an infant. This person would hold all the power of the monster captive, a living prison known as a Jinchuuriki. This person would live with the monster inside of them, and when they died, it would die. Many people saw these monsters as potential weapons that would make their country great, but the monsters couldn't be controlled, sadly, that didn't stop anyone from trying."

"So, what happened when the Kyuubi attacked?" Naruto asked.

"The Yondaime was forced to use a seal that he was working on. It was meant to bind the demon so tightly that the Jinchuuriki would never even notice the presence of it unless they were in a state of fear or rage. Those emotions would weaken the seal, just a little so that it would help them. There was no other way to stop the Kyuubi, but the cost of the seal was the life of the one who used it."

"So he sealed the monster away?" Naruto asked, "Why did they say that it was killed?"

Tsunade sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, "It was to protect the person who was the Jinchuuriki. The Yondaime truly believed that that person, just an infant at the time, would be seen as a hero, but the people of Konoha saw them as the Kyuubi himself and wanted them dead, so the Sandaime forced a law to be passed that no one could say what happened to the Kyuubi or who was the Jinchuuriki."

"Who is it?" Naruto asked, his voice had taken on a new level that showed that he had already guessed who it was.

Tsunade smiled bitterly, "the Yondaime was truly an idealistic fool. Don't get me wrong, gaki, I liked him. Everyone liked him. It was impossible not to like him and to believe in him, but that don't chance the fact that he was an idealistic fool to have such faith in people. What's worse is how he did everything for those people. He refused to use anyone's child for the sealing but his own, even though others had been born around the same time. I guess that he felt that he couldn't ask anyone to take on the responsibility that he was afraid to take. He sealed the Kyuubi into his own son, but as a precaution, the Sandaime had to keep it a secret from everyone, the boy was given his mother's maiden name and the father was never known."

"What should his name have been?" Naruto whispered.

"Namikaze…Naruto,"

* * *

Tsunade wasn't able to get a word out of Naruto for the rest of the night, so she sent him to bed so that he could think his life over. She knew that she had been anything but gentle in her revelation of the truth of his past, but she also knew that the longer she kept it from him, the worse things would be. He needed to know, even at that young age. He could handle the knowledge, and besides, she had to admit, there was a test involved in this as well.

If Naruto could still wish to protect people who had lied to him, kept the truth of his family from him, and hated him for no reason, then he was truly worthy of being called Minato's son. A Hokage had to be able to protect and care for the people who hated him as well as those who supported him. That was what made Orochimaru unworthy of that title. His gaining power would have been wonderful for herself, Jiraiya, and those who he trusted and who had seen him as more then a weapon, but, like most people, he would have only cared about those people. A Hokage had to be in a class of their own. They had to judge people on ability, not whether they liked the Hokage or not. It was up to the ANBU and the advisors to make sure that traitors were rooted out, but…the council was corrupted if they had let Danzou take over. That warmonger couldn't care less about the city's people, he cared for power, and nothing but power.

A part of Tsunade prayed that Naruto would be up to this test. If he hated the people of Konoha for what they had done…then what would become of them? It wasn't like it was everyday that a group of kids with that kind of power fell into someone's lap. They had the potential, with some training, to be just what Konoha needed to be rid of Danzou, and maybe even the council. They had always caused more trouble then they were worth. Maybe there would be a new council, one that fulfilled its original purpose…

Tsunade took a drink of her lemonade and mentally gagged. She didn't seem able to find Jiraiya's stock of sake. When he finally came waltzing in, she would murder him for hiding it so well.

Well, she supposed that the early morning sun was nice to feel without a splitting headache.

Tsunade was actually the first one up. Gaara seemed to like to wait for the others before he came down for breakfast, and Shizune was a late sleeper at times. Tsunade set out breakfast, Ninja Puffs, and left the house.

Tsunade bet that Jiraiya was a whole lot closer then she thought. If he was at this mountain, and if she wouldn't have to sit around and wait for the idiot to turn up in a few months, when he had gone back here to write his trash, there was one other place where he would go. Especially if he wanted to impress her.

Tsunade had only been here once before, and that had been a very long time ago, before they were even known as the Legendary Sannin. This had been the place where Jiraiya had first met one of the frogs that he learned to summon into battle.

It was about an hour's walk to the place where she was headed, but it was pleasant to hear her own thoughts for once. Tsunade had been more time having to worry about nine little monsters then anything else. The only thing that compensated it was that she had Naruto, the most disgustingly lucky human being ever born, and that the kids had to potential to change Konoha.

At first, she thought that these kids weren't anything to even really think about other then that they were too dangerous to allow to wander around. Then she realized that these kids were strong enough to force change around them. It wasn't like the system was really bad, it was simply that people who were totally corrupt and self-seeking had taken power, and probably always had power. She had been too young to really understand her grandfather's Konoha or how it had worked.

Tsunade stopped as she reached a very large waterfall. She carefully climbed down a set of stone steps that had been set up for the purpose, and descended to the base of the fall. When she reached it, she saw the form of a man meditating under the falls.

Thankfully, Jiraiya was wearing his clothes. He had allowed himself to appear closer to his real age then Tsunade, who worked very hard to defy time, and his clothes were slightly more wealthy then hers, though just as traditional. Tsunade had once told him that only circus performers wore clothes like his anymore, but he hadn't seemed to care. His long white hair was just like it had been the last time she had seen him.

"What are you doing?" she asked in a bored tone.

"I knew that you would come here," Jiraiya didn't seem to have heard her.

"So, you were peeking in the windows and saw us?"

"You have come to me in your hour of greatest need," he continued wisely, "but don't worry, I will be the father that you need and deserve…" his manner changed suddenly from wise sage to very interested jerk, "So…just for a question…who is the father?"

"Um, Hyuuga Hiashi, Hyuuga Hizashi, Uchiha Fugaku, Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Kazekage, who's name escapes me at the moment, the head of the Kaguya clan, Haruno Kaito, some farmer in Water Country, and I really don't know about Sai…"

A perverted grin appeared on Jiraiya's face.

"Tsunade, you naughty girl…I never thought-"

Tsunade took three steps forward and lifted the Gama Sannin up by the front of his shirt.

"-and their _mothers_ are Hyuuga Honoka, Hyuuga Hotaru, Uchiha Mikoto, Namikaze Kushina, the Kazekage's wife who I think had a first name like Noriko, the head of the Kaguya Clan's wife, Haruno Youko, some farmer's wife in Water Country, and I really don't know about Sai,"

Jiraiya blinked a few times and his manner changed again from perverted to sentimental.

"It's beautiful, Tsunade!" he cried, "just beautiful. The ratings would be wonderful. A beautiful young woman, already having experienced the cruelties of life, takes into her heart not one or two, but nine orphans and runaways!"

"If you're talking about me and the mudpuppies-"

"Giving them the pet names of her favorite animal and the joy of rainy days. Having nowhere else to go, and no one to turn to, she seeks out an old friend; hoping against hope that he at least will not let her down the way the rest of the world-"

"Oh, would you shut up?" Tsunade growled, "Before I have to brain you?"

"You don't understand what a wonderful novel this could make," he sulked.

"Sorry if I don't see anything cute about a bunch of half wild, half spoiled, partly starved, neglected children who have the potential to be ridiculously powerful, and have good reasons to want to destroy the world. What's worse, I haven't had sake in about three months!"

"Of course not!" Jiraiya looked shocked at the idea of her drinking around the children, "at such a young and impressionable age? There won't be a drop of the stuff around them. At least…not until they can appreciate it…

Tsunade gave him a dirty look.

"And what about that drivel you call literature?" she asked. Her tone told him that if he wished to live, he'd answer the question the right way.

"It's in my library, locked up," Jiraiya told her, "You have to be eighteen to read it anyways."

"That's never stopped you before," Tsunade grumbled.

"What do you mean," he asked innocently.

"Kakashi,"

"Erm…well…that was an accident…"

"Some accident,"

"Well, I had to do something to get him to stop talking. The ladies seem to get very upset for some reason,"

"…There is truly no fool like an old fool…"

"She who lives in a glass house ought not to be throwing stones,"

"What did you say," Tsunade's voice was a deadly calm.

"Um,"

Tsunade grabbed his ear and started to drag him off, amid his sputtered protests.

"Come on," she growled, "I'm going to introduce you to the mudpuppies you're going to help me train."

"You didn't say anything about training! I thought you wanted my help,"

"I do. Training the little beasts. I don't even have to punish you for that last comment. They'll probably do it for me,"

* * *

Naruto woke up later then usual, he had a lot to think about. He was the son of the Yondaime. Why hadn't anyone told him? He understood that no one else had to know, but he wouldn't have said anything. He kept all really important things to himself.

He had never told anyone most of the secrets that he held. He knew things about the people in Konoha that would have surprised them.

He walked into the kitchen and ate his Ninja Puffs in silence. The others weren't there, so they were probably out with Shizune or Tsunade training. That was fine. He really didn't want to have to talk with him right now anyways.

Kyuubi…

Everything made so much sense now. The hateful looks, the willful ignoring, the fact that few restaurants had ever allowed him to eat in them made sense now. They hated him because that he carried the greatest treat to Konoha inside of him, but it wasn't his fault. He wasn't Kyuubi. He was Uzumaki Naruto. Why couldn't they understand that?

He hadn't killed all of those people.

It wasn't fair that they hated him the way they did.

A horrifically simple thought crossed Naruto's mind: He had the power to make them all regret it. He had the power of Kyuubi. All he needed to do was learn to use it.

For a moment, it all seemed so easy. All he would have to do was train like mad, and return. Konoha would face his wrath and there would be nothing left of the Hidden Village. All he had to do was finish what Kyuubi started. Or better, he could manage to see the monster again and tear the seal of. Then Kyuubi would do it himself.

It was so easy…

His hands balled into fists and his eyes seemed to turn red just for a moment, but he stopped. A sadder look came on his face and a small smile appeared. It wasn't his usual huge grin; it was a softer, more understanding look. He sighed a little and closed his eyes. For a moment, it looked like he had aged into an adult, but it was gone in an instant.

"Yo, guys, what do you think you're doing leaving me alone like this?" Naruto yelled, leaving the room.

A small scratch in the table, very thin but surprisingly deep was the only thing that proved just how close Naruto have been to insanity.

* * *

Tsunade appeared at the door around two, dragging a man by the ear.

Shizune had been carefully overseeing everyone's training in basic taijutsu, occasionally stopping one of them and giving pointers. When Neji and Hinata had tried to tell her that they had their own kind of taijutsu that they were trying to learn, Shizune told them that what she was showing them was the basics for almost every style on the face of the earth, including Jyuuken. There was nothing that the two could say about that.

When she appeared, everyone stopped their training to stare at the odd couple.

The man had very long white hair that was somewhat tied back in a ponytail. He had what looked like tattoos on his face, and he was wearing very traditional, if not out dated clothes. A large scroll was attached to his back, but that was the only thing that made him looked anything like a ninja.

"Mudpuppies, meet my teammate. Jiraiya, meet the assorted mudpuppies," Tsunade said, letting go of Jiraiya's ear.

"Who are you?" Haku asked, looking like he was something between curious and freaked out.

Jiraiya put his hands out in a pose and hoped a little on one foot as he introduced himself.

"I am the great and wise Gama-sannin, Jiraiya-sama!" he exclaimed, "Woman love me. Evil doers fear me. I make little kids stop crying and old men feel young again!"

Naruto stared at him then opened his mouth.

"Ero-sennin," He said in a monotone voice.

"WHAT?!" Jiraiya yelled at him.

"Ero-sennin," Naruto repeated in the same tone.

"I am the Gama-sannin!" he said indignately.

"Ero-sennin," Naruto said, this time a little more forcefully.

"Gama!"

"Ero!"

"GAMA, GAMA, GAMA!"

"ERO, ERO, ERO!"

"GAMA, GA-"

Jiraiya was cut off by Tsunade hitting him upside the head.

"All of you children knock it off," she growled, "I'm not in the mood to hear it."

"Why'd you hit me?" Jiraiya complained.

"Because he's seven, and you're the one who's supposed to be an adult," Tsunade crossed her arms and glared at him, "Alright, assorted Mudpuppies, line up and introduce yourselves to your new teacher. Tell him something about yourselves. Your name, likes, dislikes, and goals should do fine."

Without a word, everyone lined up, facing Jiraiya.

"Ok, Kimimaro first," Tsunade commanded.

Kimimaro took a step forward.

"My name is Haka no Kimimaro. I like the rest of Hakumei and learning how to use my kekkei genkai. I dislike enclosed spaces, especially if they're dark. I want to help out everyone here with their dreams and to prove that not everyone in my clan is a bloodthirsty nutcase.

"Alright, Haku, you next," Tsunade said.

"Hai," Haku stepped to stand with Kimimaro, "My name is Hara no Haku. I like everyone in Hakumei, learning about medicines, and helping out the others. I don't like to fight, even though I will if my friends are in danger, people who hate other people for no reason, and when Kimimaro starts trying to scare people. My dream is to protect my precious people and to help them with there dreams. Also I'd like to make a clan from my kekkei genkai."

A cheesy grin appeared on Jiraiya's face.

"Jiraiya stop giving him that look, you'll scare him. Gaara, you're up."

Gaara took a shy step forwards, looking somewhat nervous about talking to Jiraiya.

"…My name is Sabaku no Gaara. I like my friends and playing with my sand. I don't like the monster that keeps me from sleeping and my father or uncle. I…I don't know what my dreams are yet…"

"That's fine Gaara," Tsunade said with a small smile, "I'm sure you'll find out in time. Hinata you go."

Hinata stepped up, but she didn't look afraid.

"My name is Gesshoku no Hinata. I like everyone here, other then you since I don't know you, training, learning how to control the Tenshi Byakugen, pressing flowers and…" her eyes trailed for a second to Naruto, but snapped back just as fast, "I don't like perverts, people who think I'm weak because I'm don't like to hurt people if I can avoid it, and people who hurt any one of my friends. My dream is to become the head of the Hyuuga Clan, to unite the Main and Branch families, and to end the use of the Cage Bird Seal."

Jiraiya looked at her with surprise. It was rare to see a little kid who was so focused.

"Neji!" Tsunade barked.

Neji stepped forwards.

"I am Rasen no Neji. I like to train, learn new jutsu, and do things with the others. I dislike my imouto's father and most of the Hyuuga Main House. I share my imouto's dreams of uniting the Main and Branch House and destroying the Seal. I also want to reach S-class and become ANBU captain."

"Sai!"

Sai smiled and took his step up.

"Hello, I'm Shin'en no Sai. I like Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan, Gaara-kun, Neji-kun, Haku-kun, and Kimimaro-kun. I also like to draw and paint. I don't like Danzou because he is responsible for the death of someone I cared for. My dream is to return to Konoha and to help turn ROOT into something good."

"Sakura!"

"Shannaro!" Sakura exclaimed, "I'm Nisshoku no Sakura. I like to train, hang out with everyone, cook, and Medical Ninjutsu. I hate people who make fun of my forehead, and rude, mean people. I want to became the world's most powerful kunochi."

"It's a second Tsunade…" Jiraiya muttered.

"Sasuke, you're turn," Tsunade said.

Sasuke didn't bother to step up.

"I am Arashi no Sasuke. I don't like many things other then training, my friends, my aniki, and tomatoes. I dislike a lot of things: Fangirls, stupid people, and Ninja Puffs are the most important. My dream is to show my parents that I can be just as strong as my aniki." Sasuke crossed his arms and looked rather pleased with himself.

"Naruto, wrap it up."

"Got it," Naruto took two steps further until he was a little ahead of everyone.

"I am Shippuu no Naruto, Leader of Hakumei. I like my friends, getting stronger, and ramen. I hate people who ignore me, the three minutes it takes for instant ramen to cook, anyone who tries to hurt my friends and Kyuubi. I will become Hokage, stop Danzou, and help everyone else as much as I can."

"You're the leader, gaki?" Jiraiya asked incredulously as a Tsunade was giving him a relieved look.

"Yeah, Ero-sennin," Naruto grinned at him.

"Tsunade, these kids are anything but cute," he complained.

"I never said that they were," she told him, "I'm going to make Sakura my apprentice, she has all the requirements. I'm also going to train Hinata and Haku. They need some one to learn Medical Techniques. Shizune agreed to take on Neji, Kimimaro and Gaara, she's just going to oversee them and give them hints. That leaves you with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai."

The three in question smirked at him.

"Why does the phrase 'divine punishment' come to mind?" he asked himself.

* * *

Naruto sat on the roof of the house and stared up at the sky. He had snuck out after dinner while Sakura and Hinata, joined by Sasuke, annoyed Sai by running around the room with his drawing scroll, threatening to destroy it in some way. He had his arms around his legs and his hair was lying flat.

"So, I see you put on a good face for your friends," Tsunade sat next to him something behind him told him that Jiraiya was there too, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm ok," Naruto smiled at him, but when they both gave him unconvinced looks, he sighed again, "Ok, I guess I'm still a little upset, but I'm not mad anymore."

"What do you mean?" Jiraiya asked him.

All this attention was making Naruto uncomfortable.

"Well, when Ba-chan first told me, I was really mad at everybody in Konoha. I…wanted to get them back…but then I realized something. If someone I cared about had been killed by a monster…I'd be really mad at it, and I'd want to kill it. Even if someone said that it was seal away in some kid, I wouldn't be convinced. If it's a real monster, couldn't it just kill the kid's spirit and take over the body? For all I'd know, the monster was just waiting until the body it was in was strong enough to finish what it started. I understood why they hated me. They didn't hate me, they hated Kyuubi, and that made me feel better."

"So what are you going to do?" Tsunade asked him, there was something in her tone that made Naruto answer carefully.

"I'm going to prove to them that I'm not that stupid fox. I'm going to come back and become Hokage, and I'm going to protect all of them, and be the best Hokage in the world. Even if they hated me! Because once they understand that I'm not Kyuubi, they won't hate me anymore, and even if they do…I'll still protect them…just to spite them all!"

"Come here," Tsunade said motioning him forwards.

Naruto leaned forwards, and was surprised when Tsunade leaned forwards and kissed him on the forehead. Something was slipped over his neck.

"That's for luck," she said, "You had better become a Hokage like the world has never seen, or will ever see."

"You're a lot like your mom, you know that?" Jiraiya asked, "She was just as stubborn as you are, but you're just as willing to overlook the mistakes of others as your dad was. I'm sure they're both really proud of you."

"You knew my dad?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Knew him? I taught that ungrateful little twit," Jiraiya laughed a little at the memory, "I'm also your godfather, gaki."

"What does that mean?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Be ready to train yourself into a stupor, gaki," Jiraiya told him. "I think you have the stuff to be my apprentice."

"What about everyone else?"

"They're going to be trained too, but your going to be the one to sign a contract with toads when your ready, and don't laugh, gaki, I'll introduce you to Gamabunta tomorrow. Hopefully, he'll be in a good mood and won't remember the incident in Kumo."

"Train begins tomorrow, gaki," Tsunade said, "get some sleep."

Naruto carefully made his way off the roof, not knowing that the next five years were going to be the toughest he'd ever had to face.

**END PART 1**

* * *

**Omake:** Gaara's Insomnia Continues.

Gaara stared at the ceiling of the room that the boys shared and wondered if his head would explode from boredom. He had been staring at the ceiling for almost four hours. Normally he could just meditate or find something to think about, but tonight was different. For some reason he just couldn't concentrate on one thing.

As he sat there, a thought occurred to him. There was a library on the second floor, and he could read something to pass the time.

Slowly, he got up and made his way into the library. He stared at the huge shelves for a while and finally he picked one up. There was a picture on the front of a laughing girl being chased by a happy looking man. The title was _Icha Icha Paradise_ by the Great Jiraiya.

Slowly he opened the book.

The next morning at breakfast, Gaara came to breakfast with very wide eyes.

"Hey, Gaara, what's wrong with you?" Tsunade asked.

Gaara ignored her and pointed at Jiraiya.

"SICKO!" he yelled.

"What?" Jiraiya's eyes darted around.

"Did you read one of his books?" Tsunade asked sternly.

"…yes…" Gaara confessed, "I read three pages."

All of a sudden, Gaara was enveloped in a bone crushing hug.

"Oh, you poor baby, you've been traumatized! Don't worry, auntie Tsunade won't let the nasty man scare you anymore. JIRAIYA IF I EVER FIND THAT YOU LEFT OUT ONE OF YOUR BOOKS AGAIN, I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU!"

* * *

**Celebratory Omake:** Ninja Puffs

"I refuse to have this one more time!" Sasuke said pushing the Ninja Puffs away, "I'm waiting till lunch."

He walked away completely unaware of the glint in Tsunade's eyes.

At lunch, Sasuke returned to find his bowl unmoved, the only difference was that they now resembled Ninja Boogers. Everyone else was served their favorite dishes, and Tsunade was snacking on whole tomadoes.

"I'll wait till dinner," Sasuke grumbled.

At dinner the bowl was still there, only it was now Ninja Snot. Once again, everyone else had their favorite foods.

"I'll wait till breakfast," a very hungry Sasuke told himself, "she wouldn't make me eat it then."

The next morning, the bowl, now filled with what looked like Ninja Puke was still there.

Sasuke took a bite and almost puked himself.

"I guess you'd have to be a ninja not to puke when it gets like this," he mumbled, and noticed that Tsunade was looking at him.

"Can I have a fresh bowl?" he asked, "Anything's better then Ninja Puke."

* * *

_I've reached the end of Part 1, and I'm feeling rather good about myself. I've also managed to update quickly again. _

_I don't really think that this was one of my better chapters, or maybe I don't think that anything I write is as good as what I thought. _

_Additional notes_

_Izamami: She's a figure in Japanese Mythology. She died given birth and her husband went to get her in the underworld. She told him not to look at her when she was changing, and she could go back with him. Naturally, he looked. Izanami got really mad and swore that because he had seen her in a very compromised state, she would kill off all of his human children, up to five hundred a day. He responded that for every one she killed, two more would take their place. I thought that she would be a good addition to the story._

_Jiraiya and Tsunade: Yeah, they like one another. Tsunade just refuses to admit it._

_Tainted Blood: Kimimaro's sickness was never named, it seems to have something in common with Tuberculosis, but there are some things wrong with that. I decided to make up my own thing on what his illness was. Besides, if you think about it, those clans were probably pretty inbred, so all kinds of weird diseases could have popped up._

_I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter. Tell me what you think, I'm open to all ideas and criticisms. _

_Review! _


	8. Part 2: The Bridge Builder's Daughter

_Author's Corner: Welcome to Part 2! I've been planning out this part for a while, so I think it's going to work well. I'm not going to go wildly off in my own direction, and I'm going to keep everyone believable. I don't like super powered characters as I said before, but I'm all for a believably strong characters. I hope you enjoy this part and don't be too surprised when things are slightly…warped…_

_Disclaimer: Pryotra don't own Naruto. She is neither male, nor Japanese, nor rich._

_**"With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown." **_

_**-Chinese Proverb**_

* * *

Wave Country was widely considered to be the poorest region in the world. The region was completely dominated by a corrupt business man, Gato and while it had once been a trading hub, it was now nothing but a starving village populated by people who were too poor to get out. Few people ever came to that place anymore. It was a region that the world had decided to forget about. Hired mercenaries terrorized the civilians, and the only authority was that of he who had the biggest muscles.

It was the perfect place to hide out.

The nine kids had been there for about six months. They sold fish they had caught, things that they managed to smuggle over, and they would perform almost any task for a very low price. The price depended on the person and what was being bought. Sometimes it would only be two ryou, which was expensive enough for some people, sometimes it would be for something that the person had. The kids were unnoticeable, uninteresting, and indistinguishable other then a few personal traits.

Rumor had it they worked for a group of powerful ninja who would also work for low prices. Already, several people stated that they had been helped out by this group when they had hired the kids to do something that directly went against Gato's orders.

They called themselves Hakumei.

No one in the town would tell any visitor the name of the organization, fearing that they were Missing Nin who might be picked up at any time. They had already hinted that they would leave eventually, just as suddenly as they had appeared, and the villagers wanted to keep them around as long as they could.

Shippuu no Naruto leaned against the wall of the tiny house, previously abandoned, that they had taken over. No one actually knew where they lived, and if they couldn't keep a bunch of civilians or mercenaries from following them, they had been wasting their time for five years. He had a letter in his hand and was giving the overview to the rest of his friends.

At twelve, Naruto didn't feel like he had changed much from when he was a little kid, actually, to his irritation, he was the shortest guy there, second only to Hinata. His blond hair still had a tendency to spike around, even though he wasn't sure if he really liked it all that much, and the whiskerlike marks that proclaimed that he was a Jinchuuriki were still as obvious as ever. He was wearing a faded dark orange shirt that was slightly torn up, and some tan pants. Since they were supposed to be posing as townspeople, they wore clothing that was slightly torn up to blend in. Naruto's favorite color was still orange, but he restrained himself from the bright orange that he had once admired so much. It wasn't that he disliked the color, it was just that it was impossible to take anyone seriously who ran around in neon orange.

"Baa-chan wants us to be careful…yada yada yada…she doesn't sound all that happy that we're off on our own know." He told them, reading from the letter.

"We're technically adults," Neji grumbled, "Haku and Kimimaro have been adults for three years, of course we can take care of ourselves."

Neji still liked to wear his hear in a low pony tail, and had grown fond of wearing baggy, off-white shirts along with brown pants. The genjutsu that made his eyes appear brown was perfectly in place, and Naruto doubted that anyone other then Hinata would have been able to tell that it was there.

"Well, you didn't give her any reason to be sure this was a good idea," Gaara pointed out, "You were the one who trained in the rain until you had pneumonia last year."

Gaara had found a large, gourd like, container when they were cleaning out one of Jiraiya's attics, and used it know to store extra sand. He was wearing a dark red shirt and grayish pants, both in somewhat bad shape. He was leaning against the wall on the other side, using his sand to refill some of the cracks in the wall.

"That was really stupid, but it was kinda funny," Sai commented.

Sai still wore black. All black, and nothing but black. Even though they were supposed to look poor and ragged, his stuff didn't show any sign of ill use, possibly because of some ink that he had used to cover things up. He had never lost his habit of not lying, but he had learned when to keep his mouth shut. Frequent beatings from Sakura must have taught him something.

"It wasn't that funny when Tsunade almost kept us training until we were fifteen," Sasuke said, "I was afraid we'd never leave."

Sasuke was wearing a dingy blue shirt and tan pants, and was lying on the only couch. His hair still looked like a cockatoo, and he still had his obsession with tomatoes. He hadn't activated the Sharingan yet, a fact that really annoyed him. He had been wanting to leave since he was ten, if only to get into a situation that was life threatening enough for him to activate it.

"We would leave, don't over dramatize things," Sakura cut in.

Sakura had kept her hair short, and now she wore it without bangs. Naruto assumed that she was daring anyone to say something about her forehead. She wore a sleeveless red shirt and some tan shorts. She was if anything, more violent then ever, but Naruto wouldn't have on his life have told her that. Tsunade had once said that she had the potential to surpass her. Naruto believed it.

"What do you want to tell her?" Kimimaro asked, "we could describe just what this place looks like."

Kimimaro no longer had the red marks under his eyes, according to Tsunade it had been one of the many signs of having Tainted Blood. His hair was still long, but now he wore it in a style that resembled Tsunade's. He always seemed to be drinking milk, which made sense considering his kekkei genkai. He also had developed a love of freaking people out. Sometimes he would take out his bones and play with them just to see the revolted looks on the others face. Naruto would never be able to get over the times where he pulled his spinal cord out.

"If we do that, well probably have Tsunade marching up to take us back," Hinata pointed out, "When she suggested that we go here, she didn't know that it was run by Gato. Even if it's a perfect cover, she'll probably think it's too dangerous."

Hinata had grown her hair out long again, letting it fall past her shoulders. Her eyes also had the genjutsu to make them appear brown, and she had a love for a jacket and baggy pants. She was leaning against one of the walls, looking at the ceiling.

"Hinata's right," Haku said, "We should tell her that everything's fine here if we want to stay."

Haku, mostly because of the fact that money was scarce and the others managed to get the more masculine clothes, wore his hair down and a simple looking yukata. He hated to be mistaken for a girl, but he had taken to a sort of resigned acceptance of his fate. He was prettier then most girls, and he would probably spend half of his life explaining to men that he was in fact just a male as they were.

Everyone nodded their assent to Haku's comment. This was the first time they had been allowed to do anything on their own since they came unto Tsunade's protection, and it was a bit of a thrill. Actually, it was only because of Jiraiya's insistence that they were all at least twelve now, so they should be allowed to go on missions like every other ninja their age. Tsunade had chosen to send them to Wave Country because in her time it had been a quiet place where the most they would do was get plenty of exercise chasing the local cats.

Unfortunately for her plans, Wave Country had fallen under new management, and Hakumei was finding itself very busy with smuggling food and doing odd little jobs that might have been thought of as very dangerous when they added the mercenaries to the mix.

"So, who wants to go out and hang around to see if we have any new jobs?" Kimimaro asked, "Haku, Gaara and I went yesterday."

"Neji, Sasuke and I'll go," Naruto said with a yawn, "None of us have gone for a while. Besides, it's always fun to hang around there and gamble."

"Only because you're the one who always wins without cheating," Neji grumbled.

"Hey, you seem _fated_ to win at dice," Naruto teased.

"Naruto, if I believed in fate, I wouldn't play with loaded dice."

* * *

Sasuke snorted a little.

The little open area where some of the men went to gamble at night was always overcrowded and way too loud in Naruto's opinion. It was in the open air, and in the center of the empty clearing was a large bonfire. It seemed to be the only place were the people liked to go for fun.

He preferred more quiet gambling areas were he could think a little, but at least in this one, there was no manager who would throw them out if they won too much. Naruto just had to be careful not to play too often or no one would play with him. Sasuke had rotten luck when he gambled, so he just watched the other two and occasionally play just for kicks.

Neji was already busy in a dice game that he was winning. Naruto was debating with himself on whether or not to join them when he felt someone's eyes on him. Naruto turned around, looking for the source. His eyes fell on a single woman who was standing along at the entrance to the little gambling circle. She was looking at him steadily, biting her lip and shifting a little.

Naruto knew that she was a perspective client. The somewhat nervous, shifty look in her eyes said that she wasn't here looking for money, and the fact that she was looking at him directly said that she wasn't looking for a lover here. She had something secret, possibly dangerous, that she wanted to have done.

He eased towards her, making her know that he had seen her, but not drawing too much attention to himself. Hakumei treated its clients with secrecy. He leaned against a wall a little away from her, but within range to hear anything that she said.

"Ano…excuse me…" she said almost in a whisper.

Naruto's eyes scanned the area, but he didn't see anyone listening.

"Yes?" he asked in a calmer voice then he usually had.

"I want to talk to your employer," she hissed.

"You can't," Naruto told her, "but I can relay a message."

"I…don't want to talk here…" she admitted.

"That's ok," Naruto assured her, "There are places where our employer's clients can go to tell us about what they want our employers to do for them. No one but our clients know about them, and they change all the time, so you can tell your message in secret. Do you mind if there are nine of us there?"

"I guess not…" the woman said, somewhat surprised by the businesslike manner of the twelve-year-old.

"Ok, then would you please go to the abandoned mill on the west end of this town around noon tomorrow. You won't be followed by anyone, trust me. You can tell us what you want our employers to do then. Is that ok with you?"

"I…I guess that will be alright," the woman said, "are you sure that no one will see me."

"If you are seen, I'll give up ramen. For life," Naruto assured her.

She didn't look sure if he was joking or dead serious.

"No, really, you won't be followed, trust us," Naruto tried again.

"I have no choice," the woman sighed.

"Don't worry, you won't regret it," Naruto told her, "I'm going back to the group now."

Naruto wandered back to the group where two men were sulking and Neji had a large smirk that told Naruto that he was winning. Sasuke was shaking his head at the stupidity of anyone who didn't notice that Neji was constantly calling for a seven, and it kept falling on the same numbers. They were obviously drunk.

Naruto watched for a while, not really paying any attention. He was looking forwards to the next mission, and the way that the woman had acted told him that it was something to look forwards to.

"Hey, kid, wanna play?" one of them asked him.

"That kid's not playing, you idiot," his friend growled.

"Why not? His money's as good as any ones," the first one grumbled.

"Yeah, but I want to have some money when I get home," his friend hissed.

"I'm not going to play," Naruto assured him, "I only like to play with mercenaries."

"What a great kid," a third person said, shaking his head in admiration.

The match continued and Sasuke leaned forwards to where he and Naruto could talk in a with looking like they were too secretive, or like they were too casual. Both were dangerous. Anyone would notice if they stuck their heads together and started to whisper, and anyone with training would notice if they looked too comfortable with whatever they were talking about. Someone who was looking at them had to think that they were talking about the gambling match or something that was important to them, but not to anyone else.

"So, was she a client?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, she looked like it was a big deal too," Naruto told him cheerfully, "I bet that it's something that Gato's really not going to like."

Sasuke looked interested.

"I'll tell you more when we get back," Naruto said, grinning.

"You really like suspense too much, do you know that?" Sasuke asked, looking someone annoyed.

Naruto's grin widened.

* * *

"Hey, Kimimaro, get any threes?" Sakura asked.

"Go fish," Kimimaro said in monotone voice.

"This is the most boring game ever made," Hinata observed.

"No, it's not," Sai said dully, "War is the most boring game ever made."

"I stand corrected," Hinata agreed.

"I always thought that that meditating game that Jiraiya made us do was pretty boring too," Gaara added.

"That wasn't really a game," Sakura said, "at least…I sure hope it wasn't really a game."

"Hinata, do you have any aces?" Haku asked.

"Go fish," she said.

"We're back!" Naruto's voice called.

"And, according to Naruto, we have a job," Neji's eyes seemed to be glowing at the thought.

"Hopefully, something big and nasty," Sasuke said, smirking at the pleasure of the thought.

The others made noises of interest, and stopped their game. Naruto, Neji and Sasuke, sat down into the circle, the house didn't have a table, so they were on the ground. Naruto leaned back a little and looked up at the ceiling.

"So, what's the job?" Gaara asked finally.

"We're all going to find out tomorrow at noon," Naruto told them, "I just met the client, she's a woman who lives a little outside of town, I remember her, but I can't think of her name. From the way that she was acting, it's really big. She was all nervous and she kept looking around like she was afraid of being watched. I had to promise her a bunch of times that she wouldn't be followed."

"Sounds promising," Sai remarked.

"Yeah, so, should we do the usual?" Sakura asked.

"I think that's enough," Hinata agreed, "no one's ever been able to track us before."

"I think Gaara should make sure she's not followed," Kimimaro suggested, "She sounded really worried,"

"You have a good point," Haku said, "She might actually have some of Gato's mercenaries watching her."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully, "Ok, Hinata, Neji, would you two keep watch when she's talking to us, and Gaara, Sai, could you guys make sure that no one can follow her?"

"Ok," four voices said in unison.

"What if she is being followed?" Sasuke asked.

"You, Kimimaro and Sakura can pound them into rice flower," Naruto told him.

Sasuke looked rather pleased at the thought. He seemed to have something against the mercenaries. Sakura was cracking her knuckles at the thought. She had already gotten into a slight scuffle with a few of them already when she had given some food to one of the younger kids who was begging. The mercenaries had told her to go away, and she had told him on no uncertain terms to mind their own business. If Haku hadn't come up at that moment and smoothed things over, they would have had to move on or go back to Jiraiya's 'hermitage'.

"Let's hope this is as big a deal as we're hoping it is," Sasuke said, "I'd love a nice life threatening battle."

"Yeah, there's no way you can activate the Sharingan if your not in some sort of high stress situation, and apparently training doesn't count," Neji smirked.

"It should, I thought I was going to die half the time,"

"Um, before we go into Sasuke's dreams of the Sharingan, who wrote the letter for Tsunade?" Naruto cut in.

"I did," Kimimaro said, giving Naruto a neatly folded piece of paper.

"Ok, I'll summon Gamakichi and ask him to take it to Jiraiya," Naruto told them, "Hopefully, she won't come here to confirm what we said. It'll be hard to explain some of the things we've said."

"Like the fact that we have an inn practically to ourselves," Hinata asked.

"This was an inn once…I think…" Naruto said thoughtfully.

* * *

Naruto and the others had cleaned out a lot of old abandoned buildings for seeing their clients in. They had all agreed that it was best for no one to know that they were Hakumei, so they pretended to be agents and workers. To make sure that no one could tell where they met, they would meet the client in different places all the time, just in case someone was trying to track their movements. The buildings chosen were at random, and there was no pattern in it. The only way that someone would know where they were meeting was if the client talked or was followed. Either way, any followers be it mercenaries or whatever were quickly either distracted or knocked out. Hinata and Haku had pointed out that if they killed any mercenaries, it would make Gato actually focus on them and cause trouble.

All preparations had been made by the time that they were supposed to be on the look out for their guest.

Naruto sat in a half rotten chair that someone had left before they had been evicted or killed, and waited. Everyone but Sai and Gaara were loitering around, making small talk, or in the case of Hinata and Sakura, whispering about something that was making Sakura giggle and Hinata blush slightly while giggling. Naruto didn't really know what it was, or really want to know. He was feeling a little too anxious for everything to begin anyways, and...Sakura and Hinata were kind of intimidating sometimes…

At least Sakura didn't seem to be bipolar anymore.

There was a sound outside, and the door opened. The woman that Naruto had spoken too that last night walked slowly into the building. She stopped when she saw seven of them loitering around, and two more coming in from one of the windows, but she seemed to gather up her courage and continued until she was in the center of the room.

"I don't think that I was followed," the woman said, looking behind her nervously.

"You weren't," Gaara assured her, "Don't worry about that."

"Um, I can here to…hire your employers for something…" the woman started again.

"You can't talk to them, but they're here, listening, if they accept your job, we'll know," Sakura said, "So, just pretend that we're the ones you want to hire, and explain the job."

"A-Alright," the woman took a deep breath and began, "My name is Tsunami. My father is Tazuna."

"The bridge builder?" Kimimaro asked, "the one who's trying to build a bridge that will connect Wave with the mainland?"

Tsunami looked a little relived that they knew him.

"Yes, that's him," she said, smiling a little, "I'm sure you know that his project is directly against Gato's plans, and how he's been pressuring anyone who works for him to quit. Well, a while ago, he went to get some supplies, and appeal to one of the lesser ninja villages for help. According to his last letter he was refused and was coming back, but while he was gone, Gato began to hire people to kill him. Gato wants to make certain that the bridge is never finished. I wrote back and told him that Gato had hired real ninja to kill him, but he wrote that he had already planned ahead and was going to trick Konoha ninja into helping. He said that even if they're at war, they would allow some group to go on an escort mission, after all, money was money. That was three days ago…

"…I don't trust the Konoha ninja," she said suddenly, "I know they used to be considered the best and most trustworthy in the world, but now they're no different then Gato. Besides…there are rumors that some of them are on Gato's payroll too."

"And what do you want done?" Haku asked.

"I want you to help him," she said, her hands balled into fists, "I'll pay anything that I have, I'll even sell myself if I have to."

"That won't be necessary," Neji cut in.

"Please," she continued, bowing low, "please accept."

Naruto's eyes hit each of the others, and there was a small nod shared among them.

"Is there anything else?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, I have a job for the nine of you as well," she told them.

"What's that?" Hinata asked.

"Tou-san is starting to have trouble because no one will work for him since all of his former workers have been targeted by Gato. I would like you all to help him on the bridge. As payment, I can offer two meals a day for all of you until the job is finished."

"What do you guys say about that?" Naruto asked, his stomach growling at the thought.

"Sounds good," Sasuke spoke for the first time.

"And the other one…"

There was a flutter of wings, and a small pigeon flew to Naruto. This was the way that they made it look like there were people listening. They would put a cage with a trained pigeon in it in one of the other rooms out of site. When the time was right, Gaara would unlatch the cage, and the bird would fly to Naruto with a blank piece of paper in it's mouth. It worked perfectly.

"Hakumei accepts," Naruto told her with a grin.

Tsunami let out a sigh of relief.

"But you won't ever see them," Sasuke cut in, "Not unless there's something wrong. If you have any other requests you'll have to talk through us."

"I see…what about the payment?" Tsunami asked.

"Payment is on a job completed," Hinata told her, "if Hakumei doesn't complete the job to satisfaction, then it's up to you what you want to pay. The fee will be three hundred ryou on a job well done, that's not much. Most ninja would charge at least ten times that."

"That's very different then a Ninja Village…" Tsunami muttered.

It didn't use to be, Naruto found himself thinking. There was a time in Konoha where that was standard practice. It was that kind of policy that had made Konoha such a wealthy village, but know with Danzou, and even with the council before him, things were very, very different.

"Hey, did you guys hear something?" Sakura asked.

"No," Kimimaro shook his head.

"There it is again," Sakura said suddenly.

"I heard it too," Haku agreed.

"Hinata, Neji," Naruto said.

"Three mercenaries," Neji said, "They must have had a bug on her,"

Sasuke grumbled something that Naruto didn't quite catch but could guess was something that he had learned from Tsunade in one of her less ladylike moments or when she was yelling at Jiraiya.

Tsunami looked worried and took an involuntary step backward.

"Don't worry," Hinata assured her, "it'll be fine."

"What should I do?" she asked, her voice was surprisingly calm. She sounded like she understood that she was in danger, and knew that she was defenseless, but also knew that following their orders was probably her best bet for survival.

"Hide in the other room," Gaara told her, "and please wait until one of us comes to get you.

Tsunami quickly did as she was told, in time to avoid hearing the pounding of the three mercenaries as they yelled to be let in.

"Who's turn is it?" Sakura asked.

"Mine," Kimimaro told her, looking somewhat excited. He seemed to really like freaking people out with his attacks.

He was smirking in a rather unpleasant way as he walked forwards to the door. He calmly opened it, allowing the three men in fall to the ground and look around blearily.

"What's going on here?" one of them asked, looking angry.

Nothing," Sasuke said in a bored tone.

"Doesn't look like it to me," one of them said, "You're those kids who sell contraband food aren't you?"

"We sell stuff we get around here," Hinata told them.

"Since when was it a crime to sell fish you caught?" Haku asked.

"Shut up!" the other commanded, "You kids are going directly against Gato's rules and are selling illegal items."

"I still want to know when fish was thought of as illegal," Sai muttered, "It really doesn't make any sense."

"Gato doesn't make any sense," Neji muttered, "I mean really, what's the point in making this place bankrupt. It's not like it's helping him at all."

"Ya wanna tell Gato what you think?" the last one asked.

"No, not really," Neji said, "I kind of like living, and I'd like my innards to stay right where they are."

"Besides," Naruto said thoughtfully, "I hear that service is lousy."

There were some nods and some remarks about not thinking that prison cells were nice places to put guests.

"Well, brats, you're going to be finding out for yourselves if that story is true or not," one of the men said with dark smirk, "You're coming with us to see Gato about selling illegal items and trying to subvert the populace."

They all looked at one another.

"You know," Naruto said, after looking like he was thinking hard about something, "I'm going to have to refuse the invitation."

"Sorry, no refusals,"

One of them tried to grab unto Kimimaro's arm and let go quickly with a cry of pain as razor sharp bones shot out of the skin he had grabbed. The mercenary stared at his bleeding hand and glared at Kimimaro, who looked impassive.

"You'll pay for that, teme," he snarled.

"Get him first!"

All three rushed at Kimimaro, drawing their swords.

"Yanagi no Mai!"

Two long bones grew out of the palms of Kimimaro's hands. Kimimaro dodged all three attacks and focused on the one with the bleeding hand. He thrust with one hand, allowed the man to dodge and then disarmed him with the other bone. The other two rushed at him from behind and Kimimaro slipped behind the man he had disarmed. The two mercenaries didn't seem to care too much if their comrade was being used as a human shield, since they continued their attack and didn't bother to try to avoid killing the other one.

"Got you, punk!" one yelled triumphantly.

"Got who?" Kimimaro asked, letting go of his shield and appearing right behind the two attackers.

Kimimaro's full attack looked like a dance. He spun, he slashed, he moved with his opponents. Both of them tried to attack swinging their swords wildly, and Kimimaro repelled both. He rushed forwards dodged the sweep of one sword and attacked from the side. His thrust hit and the man collapsed, hold his bleeding side. Kimimaro had the spit second warning out of the corner of his eye as the other man charged him. He jumped, turned in mid air, and caught the sword between the two bones. With a twisting motion, he had disarmed the man and sent the sword flying away. As the man fell forwards, Kimimaro struck him on the head, knocking him out.

"Kimimaro, behind you!" Neji warned him.

Kimimaro turned to see the first man he had disarmed running at him with a large metal pipe in his hands, Kimimaro didn't bother to attack. He simple dodged to one side and stuck out his foot. The man tripped and Kimimaro struck a pressure point.

The man crumpled and Kimimaro calmly walked over to the bleeding man, and knocked him out.

"You didn't hit them too hard right?" Sakura asked.

"No, it shouldn't cause a concussion," Kimimaro said calmly.

"Good, those are hard to heal up," Sakura said calmly leaning over one of them.

She searched all of their pockets until she found what she was looking for, a large, full bottle of sake. Carefully, she went to each of them in turn and made them drink some. When each had drank enough for her, she poured the rest of the stuff on the ground.

It was a strategy that they had all come up with. Since they couldn't kill the mercenaries without Gato throwing a hissy fit and searching for them, they had to outsmart them. It had happened once or twice that they had already gotten into a fight with the local mercenaries. When this happened, they would be knocked out, forced to drink some kind of alcohol or other, and healed of any wounds that had received. The plan was for them to wake up, thinking that they had drunk too much and had weird dreams. Even if they did talk about it to one another, they would think that they had been talking about it in a drunken stupor. So far the plan had been foolproof.

Sakura leaned over the three men, healing their wounds while the others congratulated Kimimaro on his victory.

"You took to long," Sasuke said snidely, "Were those three giving you trouble?"

"No," Kimimaro said, "I just wanted to make sure that I didn't crush them beyond Sakura's repair.

"I sure hope so," Haku said, "If the mercenaries were enough to slow us down, I don't want to think about what will happen when we meet the real ninja Gato's employed."

"Here here," Gaara muttered.

Sand drifted out of the gourd attached to Gaara's back and surrounded the three mercenaries. It formed a cocoon around all of them and picked them up. They floated out of the room and slowly out the door, with Gaara following it.

"I'll be back in a minute," he said as he left.

"Hey, Hinata, could you get Tsunami-san?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, I'd forgotten she was here with all the excitement. I hope she didn't see too much," Hinata said thoughtfully.

"Well, if she did, I guess we have some explaining to do," Sai said.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Neji grumbled.

"What?" Sai asked.

Sometimes Sai still seemed completely clueless. Naruto wasn't sure if that was the truth, his way of dealing with people laughing at him, or some sort of twisted sense of humor that had evolved from too much time with all of them.

Hinata walked over to the door and opened it softly.

"You can come out now," she told the woman waiting inside, "They're gone."

"What happened?" Tsunami asked.

"Nothing much," Sasuke told her, "Just don't talk about this to anyone, and you'll be fine."

"When would you like us to come to your house?" Haku asked.

"The moment that my father comes home," Tsunami told him, "I don't trust Konoha nin, and if you are around the house, they'll be less likely to attack us."

Naruto didn't say that if they had been paid to kill her father, he probably wouldn't have come back. Ninja were more precise on their missions, and assassinations were handed in an extremely businesslike way. Unless they had been paid to do crush what was left of the spirit of the town, then they would have come back, but they wouldn't have hesitated to attack a group of street urchins. Actually, they would have done it just to show the people that no one was safe.

Konoha had definitely fallen.

There was a time where it was not only the home of the strongest but the most honorable ninja in the world. Now, they were more ruthless then anyone else. They were known to switch sides in an instant, have no loyalty to their clients, and would often act as double agents. While Naruto knew that this sometimes was part of a ninja's job, but they took things to an extreme that would have made the four Hokage turn in their graves out of shame.

"Hey, Sai, would you mind taking Tsunami-san home?" Naruto asked, "Tsunami-san, when your father comes back, please come to the market area, at least one of us will be there."

"Alright," Sai said, "Please follow me."

* * *

The fire cracked lightly and threw wild shadows around. Nobody was talking much that night. Naruto supposed that everyone else, like him, was thinking about their new mission.

There was something fishy about the whole thing.

Gato's motives were obvious. He wanted to keep his monopoly on the surrounding land. Actually, Wave Country was rich in natural resources. The soil was good, and because of the frequent floods, more was always brought in, eliminating the need to change fields every so often. There was rumor about there being gold in some of the more remote rivers, and there it was in an ideal location for trading with almost every nation on earth as long as Sand Country wasn't counted.

Konoha's motives were harder to read. If they were going to send Ninja, probably a genin team since they wouldn't want to spare any experienced teams for something this trivial when they were at war with Kumo for some unknown reason, it would be a slap in the face to Kiri, which was actually closer. Wasn't one enemy enough?

Well, they were winning at the moment, but still…

Konoha had won the war with Iwa about a two years ago and had directly attacked Iwa's old ally, Kumo. Kumo was putting up a good fight, and there was suspicion that Kiri was helping it from the side lines. Naruto found himself wondering just what Danzou was planning. Was he trying to become the ruler of the Ninja world?

"So, am I the only one who thinks that something in this mission doesn't add up?" Naruto asked.

"Such as the fact that Tazuna goes to Konoha for help?" Sai asked.

"Yeah," Naruto muttered, "What's Konoha got to gain from this?"

"Maybe Kiri's backing Gato," Hinata suggested.

"Or maybe their trying to bait Kiri into going to war," Gaara said thoughtfully.

"Or Tazuna still thinks that Konoha is the old Konoha," Neji said.

"I doubt that one," Sasuke muttered, "More likely, Hinata's right and so's Gaara. Tazuna went to Konoha because Konoha wasn't backing Gato, Konoha's going to help because it'll annoy Kiri."

"Sounds like a good way to get into a war," Sakura said darkly.

"Doesn't it though," Haku agreed.

"What do you think Gato's hired to kill the guy?" Sai asked suddenly.

"Who knows," Hinata said with a shrug, "probably the cheapest thing he can get away with."

"That might be more dangerous to us," Kimimaro said thoughtfully.

"I agree," Gaara said, nodding, "The cheapest thing is always a Missing Nin."

"Which means that there's a good chance we're going to have an A-rank opponate. At least a B-rank," Sakura pointed out, "Ya think we're good enough."

"Sakura, if you don't punch them into next Wednesday, Sasuke will reduce them into charred remains, Hinata and Neji will slaughter them, Haku will freeze them, Kimimaro will slice them up, Gaara will turn them into orange juice, Sai will draw up something large, toothy, and probably very vicious, and I'll an army of me, all ready to explode at a moment's notice as backup, or I'll use Rasengan. I think that we can handle most things. It's the Konoha team I'm worried about," Naruto said, not looking up from the fire.

"Yeah, that's a problem," Sasuke nodded, "We don't know really what to expect, and if it's a team, we might see someone we know."

"What if you're recognized?" Gaara asked.

"We won't be," Sakura said fercely, "Hinata and Neji don't have the Hyuuga eyes, there are more guys were black hair and black eyes then you can shake a stick at, the same goes for blonde with blue eyes. As for me and my hair, I don't come from a clan, so chances are, unless it's someone who knew me personally, they probably won't know me. I didn't know many people, and I've changed a bit, so who knows."

"At any rate, we're going to have to go by fake names," Hinata told them.

"Naturally," Sakura agreed, "That goes for all of us."

"So what do you want to be known as?" Haku asked.

"I'll be Hideaki," Sai said, "Let's say we're orphans, so we don't have to make up last names, which can be traced."

"Sounds good," Gaara agreed, "I'm Shinta."

"Masaru," Sasuke said.

"Emi," Sakura told them.

"Rei," Hinata said.

"Ryou," Haku said.

"Taiki," Naruto told them.

"Yuuma," Kimimaro said, after a moment.

"I'll be Haru," Neji said at last.

"Sounds good," Naruto said, "Let's hope that signal comes soon though. Those mercenaries aren't going to believe that they have dreams of being beat up by us much longer. I think this should be our last mission here."

"We're going to clear out after this?" Sai looked surprised.

"Sounds like a good idea," Hinata said, "We're starting to push things."

"And when the going gets tough, Hakumei gets going," Kimimaro said, repeating a rather old joke.

"And remember what Jiraiya told us about the first rule of ninja life." Sasuke smirked.

"He who fights are runs away lives to see the light of day," they laughed.

Naruto smiled as the laugher died down.

It was nights like this that he wished would last forever.

* * *

**Omake:** Ah, Memories

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Tsunade asked looking crictically at Jiraiya.

"This is how we started," Jiraiya said, crossing his arms.

"I don't recall ever having to clean the bathrooms of the local bar," Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

"So I improvised a bit," Jiraiya shrugged, "It'll be good for them."

"How did the boys take it? Hinata and Sakura got right to work," Tsunade changed the subject.

"Well, Neji and Sai started to practice their filthy language at me for doing this to them, Kimimaro dibbed the sinks before the others could react, Haku started to make as much water as possible, Sasuke volunteered to burn the whole place to the ground, Gaara stated that he refused to touch anything, and Naruto…sort of _shivered_," Jiraiya seemed to be slightly enjoying the tale.

"What was he looking at?" Tsunade asked, a bad feeling rising up.

"The stall that I like,"

At that point in time, the door opened and an eight-year-old Naruto stormed out. He stopped in front of the two and pointed at them.

"I demand pork ramen for a week! That was a double S-rank mission, and I want payment!" He said angrily, and stomped off.

As the door opened to show the rest of the boys, with identical faces, Tsunade turned to face Jiraiya with a slight smirk.

"You're cooking tonight,"

* * *

_So, what do you think? As you can see, the characters are out of character from the manga, but in character for this story. For a while, I toyed with the idea of having them so out of character it wasn't even funny, but I read some stories where that was done, and decided I didn't really want to do it._

_For instance, Sasuke is still intent on getting stronger, but Naruto and the others have rubbed off on him. He's not willing to kill something (other then himself) to gain power._

_Hinata is still a calmer character, but she's surer of herself._

_Sakura was modeled mostly after her Shippuuden self, with a few alterations mixed in. Thankfully, she's not a fangirl._

_I didn't really like Kimimaro's fight scene, but I'd like to think that I'm getting better at writing them. All in all though, I thought it was one of my less inspired efforts._

_Additional Notes:_

_War: It's a card game for two players. The two have a full deck in front of them and one draws a card and sets it face up next to the deck. The other player does the same, and the highest card (regardless of suit) wins and both cards go to the person who drew the highest card. The player with the most cards wins (at least, this is what I played). It's a very amusing game for a little kid, but not for anyone else. _

_No Inner Sakura: In my opinion, Inner Sakura is less of a split personality then she is the manifestation of Sakura's true feelings. Because she was pressured and bullied, she never liked to say anything but what she thought was what people wanted to hear. In my version, Sakura never had to worry about voicing her opinion, so Inner Sakura never really had to develop. _

_Tsunami: Does she even HAVE a last name?_

_Translations:_

_Teme: an extremely rude form of the word 'you'. (No, it doesn't mean bastard. It gets translated as that because English doesn't have various words for 'you' and the only way we can think of saying something rude is swearing.)_

_Yanagi no Mai: Dance of the Willow._

_Bones grow from the palms of the user's hands to be used as swords. The blades are fairly long and incredibly powerful. The clan member can use both of these bone hand blades to stab, slice, or even impale their target. _

_Tell me what you think!_


	9. Part 2: Deception

_Author's Corner: Alright, we're getting into this story's Wave Arc, which means that we're going to meet Konoha ninja for the first time in a long time. This chapter took some time to plan out, mostly because I had to think about how I wanted to show the changes, and who I wanted to be there, but I think that I'm happy with it. _

_It's funny, I really used to dislike Kakashi, but after a while (and reading Kakashi Garden) I sort of got a feeling of understanding for him. I still think that he should have trained Naruto better, but I don't hate him anymore. I hope that I got him in character since he's a bit enigmatic and no where near as easy going as he looks._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra has no connection with Naruto or any of it's characters, therefore no blame can to giving to her for the long fillers of the anime._

_**And after all, what is a lie? 'T is but The truth in masquerade. **_

_**-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, Don Juan. Canto xi. Stanza 37**_

* * *

Gamakichi turned up about an hour after everyone had fallen asleep. Naruto was on watch that night since Gaara had been knocked out. Every month, at some random time, Gaara was knocked out from behind by one or more of the others. It was good for him, and for some reason, Shikaku didn't seem able to be a problem. Naruto really felt sorry for Gaara. At least Kyuubi couldn't talk to him…

Naruto had gone into a sort of trance that he would go into after being on watch to long. Haku called it hyper focusing, and Sai called it the state-of-wanting-to-fall-asleep-but-not-quite-managing-it. At three in the morning, it was hard to keep watch, especially when he knew that there was nothing to keep watch for, other then Neji's kicks. He was only aware of Gamakichi when he started to hop towards him. Naruto blinked a few times, but managed to look like he had been paying attention.

When he had first seen a summon animal, Naruto had almost talked it to death. The idea of a huge toad that wore clothes like a human and could speak to him had thrilled the seven-year-old boy. Now, he was used to the whole thing, and had gotten into the habit of talking to the toads like they were anyone else.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Ya got a message from Jiraiya," Gamakichi said, depositing a scroll in his mouth to the floor, "Got anything to eat around here?"

Naruto gave the toad a bit of candy that he saved for these things. Gamakichi and his siblings were always helpful, as long as they were paid, and like most children, they'd do a lot for treats. The older toads, like Gamabunta, Gamakichi's father, had to be paid with other things. Gamabunta wouldn't fight unless one of his kids was in danger, he actually liked you, or you were going to give him sake. Usually the last two were connected.

"I'd read that letter pretty soon if I were you," Gamakichi told him, "Jiraiya seemed like he was serious when he wrote it."

"It had better not have pieces of once of his manuscripts that he wants me to read over," Naruto muttered as be opened if, "If it is tell him that I burned it."

_Shippuu, _

_You liar._

_I really ought to tell Tsunade just what's really going on in Wave, but I won't because then I would have to admit to knowing all along. _

_My sources are telling me that you've all been busy making names for yourselves amongst the populace, as well as infuriating Gato to no end. Good job all of you. From what I'm hearing, you're really doing a great job. No one has really connected you with Hakumei as anything more then agents. You need to keep things like that as long as you can. The longer people don't know who you are, the longer you guys can walk around in public without people trying to kill you._

_Now, until a very important matter: my sources tell me that the local bridge builder has enlisted the help of a genin team. While this isn't all that interesting to you guys other then to avoid like the plague. There's something you should know. The team is being led by someone called Hatake Kakashi. I want you to take the letter that I've enclosed in this and give it to him. He's a part of a certain group who is…er…opposed to Danzou. I'm in connection with them. Don't allow the genin team to know anything. I know for a fact that at least one of them is under Danzou's direct orders. Be careful. I can't say who it is, because I'm afraid this could be intercepted, but Arashi should know when he sees them._

_Remember to go and talk to Kakashi when you have the chance. _

_Also, Gato's hired some real bad news. He's called the Demon of the Mist for a very good reason. His name is Zabuza, and he's one of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen. They're a dangerous group, even now that they've been disbanded. This guy also made an attempt at the Mizukage's life. He's an S-rank opponent, so you had better take him seriously. Also…he seems to have some sort of help, but I don't know too much about it. I'm sure you'll end up fighting him at the rate you're going at._

_Just be careful, and make sure that you burn this letter. Tsunade will kill me if she sees it._

_Jiraiya._

"Anything you want to say back?" Gamakichi asked.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "Tell him that I'll do as he says, and tell him that we'll be ok."

"Nothing written?" the toad made sure.

"And face the Wraith of Baa-chan?" Naruto snorted, "No way."

"Alright, see you," Gamakichi waved.

"Bye," Naruto called as the toad disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto reread the letter, looked at the remains of the fire and tossed the first letter in, pocketing the second one. He rested his chin on one hand and bit his lip a little bit.

Something told him that they were in for an up close and personal encounter with this 'Demon of the Mist'.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi hadn't liked this mission to begin with.

Actually, Kakashi didn't have as much trouble with the mission as with the team.

He had known early on the Danzou didn't like him. Kakashi was the student of the Yondaime, and the devoted follower of the Sandaime, and Danzou wanted to keep very close tabs on him. Actually, Kakashi was astounded that Danzou hadn't tried to kill him. It wasn't like it would have been the first time that someone in Danzou's way just…disappeared. Most of the Sarutobi family had died already; it was only Asuma and that kid Konohamaru left. Kakashi assumed that he was considered too useful at the moment to be killed and loyal enough so as not to be a real threat.

That hadn't stopped Danzou from saddling him with a Genin team. When Kakashi first noticed that his name was up from every single graduating class, he had developed the perfect counter stratigy. He employed his sensei's old bell test, cheated, and made sure that every single team failed.

Unfortunately, it appeared that Danzou had figured out his tactic.

Team 7, consisted of Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Uchiha Yumi. The Inuzuka family was unquestionably loyal to Danzou, who they saw as the 'alpha'. It made sense that he would be on the team. If Kakashi said or did anything that wasn't considered proper, he would tell his family, who would report to Danzou. The Aburame family was…well it was hard to say what they thought of anything. They seemed to accept Danzou's leadership, if only because he had been elected Hokage. Shino's loyalties were with his parents, but Kakashi had no idea where his parents' loyalty lay. Uchiha Yumi was the real problem. She had transferred to the Academy a year ago, and had had little to no contact with any of the students. This was normal for that family, but her actions during the bell test made him wonder if she had been a ROOT ninja sent to observe him. She had single handedly made sure that the team passed, seeing through all his lies and making the others do the same. Her manner was too controlled for a normal twelve year old girl, and something about her was just…off.

The mission had started normally enough. Kiba had started to moan about lame D-rank missions and wanting to do something worth while, and how he was a ninja now and why couldn't he help with the war. Kiba had been very disappointed when they had been assigned the mission to escort the bridge builder Tazuna back to Wave. To him, this was just a long D-rank.

Kakashi had learned from a very young age during the last war just how to tell if someone was hiding something. Tazuna's eyes shifted too much, and the way he was walking proved that he had drunk too much and was unaccustomed to it. Also, he refused to tell why he needed an escort other then he didn't want to be attacked by bandits, but this story didn't make sense. Where was the escort that he would have had from Wave to Konoha? Why was he even there?

His suspicions had been justified when the Demon Brothers had appeared, and been disposed of. While Shino and Kiba had both fought in the battle, Yumi had stayed back. While Kakashi usually expect this out of girls, most of them were more interested in finding a husband then being a ninja, her calm face told him that she was observing both her allies and enemies.

With the proper intimidation tactics that Kiba employed without orders, Tazuna confessed that he was being targeted by Gato, a local business man who had gotten rich from selling illegal items on the black market. This had made a tremendous amount more sense, and Kakashi had said that he was considering calling the mission off. Kiba had been furious, saying that this was his chance to prove himself worthy of going to battle. Shino had say simply that judging by the power of these opponents, the mission would do best to continue as they were the more powerful, and had signed a contract. Yumi had shrugged and said it was for the captain to decide.

Kakashi still believed in the Konoha of the past, an honorable village that completed its duty. He had never intended to leave the man, just to frighten him enough so that he knew the danger that he was in. He ordered the mission to proceed as planned, got a cheer from Kiba and a nod from Shino, but no visible response from Yumi.

They were nearing the village and it seemed that everything was going smoothly, yet Kakashi could practically feel the danger rising. The bridge builder seemed apprehensive as well, judging by the way his eyes were constantly shifting around.

A bush moved to Kakashi's right, but he ignored it, whatever it was was too small to be a ninja. Kiba, however, threw a kunai into the bush and was very disappointed with a white rabbit hoped out.

"Let's skin it and eat it," Kiba said, grinning savagely at the creature, which seemed to sense his intentions and hoped away from him only to be caught by Yumi.

"You're a total moron." she said calmly, "This rabbit belongs to someone."

"What? How do you know that?" Kiba asked, looking from the rabbit to her.

"Because this rabbit is white, meaning that it has not shed its winter coat," Shino supplied, he seemed to be the only one interested in maintaining some kind of team unity when they weren't in some life threatening situation, "If it had been wild, it would have a brown coat as it is now early summer. Therefore, the only conclusion can be that it is domesticated."

"So it's someone's pet?" Kiba asked.

"How is it possible that you're still alive?" Yumi asked, "with that mind, you should have killed yourself years ago."

"HEY!" Kiba yelled.

"Be quiet!" Kakashi hissed, as mist began to form around them, "That rabbit was a distraction."

Kiba looked like he was about to say something, but shut his mouth when he felt the rush of killing intent.

"Well, Kiba, it looks like you're going to get to prove yourself after all…" Kakashi said as he prepared for battle.

Kakashi knew he hated this mission from the beginning.

* * *

Naruto was woken up one morning three days after the meeting with Tsunami by being pecked on the forehead by something. He moaned and opened his eyes to see a small carrier pigeon with a note attached to its leg. The bird pecked him again, and Naruto sat up, mumbling some half formed curses about 'early birds' and took the letter.

It had obviously been written by Tsunami, and it consisted of only two words:

_They're here._

"Dattebayo," Naruto grinned, "Yo, everyone, get up!"

Sai blearily looked up from the couch (it was his turn). Sasuke lifted up his head from a heap of old rags. Sakura and Hinata's heads popped out from the room that they shared. Gaara was already next to Naruto, reading over his shoulder. Haku slowly stood up from his old blanket that he had found, looking like something out of a horror movie since his hair had fallen over his face. Kimimaro didn't move from his corner, but he opened one eye to show that he was awake. Neji looked up from his very uncomfortable looking sitting position.

"What's up?" Sai asked.

"Mission's about to begin," Naruto said, holding up the note, "We need to get ready. We're going to meet the Konoha nin."

"This ought to be good…" Sasuke muttered, "I've been looking forwards to seeing how well we match up to Konoha nin."

"They're just going to be genins, Sasuke," Gaara said, "It won't be that interesting. We're in an entirely different league."

"Don't be so cocky," Hinata warned, walking in, "Just because their genins doesn't mean they're not dangerous. It's that same underestimation that's caused hundreds to die."

"You're such a killjoy," Sasuke muttered.

"Attention in the barnyard!" Naruto yelled, making all conversations cease, "We need to stop talking and start moving. We know our job, and we know just what to do."

"This is mostly just a test on how well we can deceive others right now," Sai said, remembering all the plans, "Our job is to fool them and to observe their techniques and level."

"Yeah, yeah," Sasuke grumbled, "We wait and see if they attack and if they do, we crush them. If this Zubuza guy shows up, we attack on sight. The only problem with that plan is that we have no idea what he looks like."

"Well, if he's one of the Swordsman, I bet he's going to have a big sword," Sakura said, "I read a little about them, almost all of them had swords that no human should be able to pick up let alone use."

"Well, one of them doesn't look human," Sai said.

"But that's not Zubuza," Kimimaro cut in, "That's Kisame."

"It's funny that that's the only one we really remember from Baa-chan's lessons," Naruto said thoughtfully.

"Probably it has to do with the fact that he's blue, with gills and very sharp teeth," Neji said.

The rest nodded on agreement.

"Let's get this show on the road!" Sakura said with a grin, "I wonder if the genin are anyone we know…"

* * *

Naruto knocked on the door of the small house. It was a pleasant looking place, a little ways from the village, with some actual land around it. It looked as if Tsunami's family had money or had had money at some time in the past.

The door was opened by an old man in a black shirt holding a bottle of sake in one hand.

"Wadda what?" he slurred.

"Hi, Tsunami-san hired us to help build the bridge and she promised that our payment was two meals a day, so here we are," Naruto said brightly, grinning widely.

The man stared at him and then at the other eight and fully opened the door with a very large smile.

"Come in, come in," he said cheerfully, "people who'll work for food are always welcome!"

Naruto led the group to into the kitchen where they found Tsunami setting breakfast in front of a group of people.

The first one to catch Naruto's eye was a boy his age with brown hair and sharp, rather sharp eyes, and red tattoos on his face. He was wearing a heavy coat and a small puppy was perched on his head. He was wolfing down the food on his plate at a mile a minute, and he had looked up briefly as they came in.

Kiba.

Naruto knew his old friend in an instant. It was the tattoos.

The other boy was wearing dark glasses and a turtleneck shirt that covered most of his face. His hair frizzed out into something that resembled an afro. His clothes were nondescript and seemed made so that he could blend into the room. He was watching them as they came in, but Naruto couldn't tell what he was thinking.

He looked familiar, but Naruto couldn't quite place him.

The girl was completely unfamiliar to Naruto. She was pretty, with long black hair pulled into a ponytail and black eyes. Her already pale skin looked almost ghostly, which actually made her more alluring. She was wearing a black, sleeveless shirt with her forehead protector was on her arm and black pants. She also…had been attacked by the hormone fairy.

Naruto noticed that Sasuke's eyes had flickered slightly when he saw her. He remembered what Jiraiya had written and resolved to ask him what was up when he had a chance of doing so without being overheard.

"Who're you?" Kiba asked glaring at them.

"Hi," Naruto said with a big grin, "I'm Taiki. My friends and I are helping Tazuna-san on the bridge."

"I'm pleased to meet all of you," the other boy said, not getting up, but bowing anyway, "My name is Aburame Shino, these are my teammates, Inuzuka Kiba and Uchiha Yumi. We've been hired to protect Tazuna-san."

Shino. The name brought back a shady recollection to Naruto of a quiet boy who he had seldom spoken to. He only once remembered a conversation and that was when Shino stated his surprise that Naruto had left a spider that was on his desk alone. Naruto had responded that he liked spiders since they usually didn't bother him and they ate bugs that did bother him.

"Why are you being so polite to these guys?" Kiba asked sounding irritated, "They're just civilians."

"It is best to be courteous to all you meet," Shino told him, in a monotone voice, "You can never tell if you are looking at a common insect or a deadly one until its anger is aroused."

"Comparing people to insects again," the girl, Yumi spoke up. She turned to the Hakumei, "You'll have to forgive Kiba. He failed miserably in his emotional training, and it's a wonder that he was even made a ninja at all."

It took almost all of Naruto's self control not to attack Kiba and the girl at that moment, and from the feel of the hidden killing intent of his friends, he wasn't the only one.

"Hey, hey, what's all this about," a bored voice asked and another man walked slowly into the room.

This must be Kakashi. He was young, only in his mid to late twenties, but his hair was gray. His lower face was covered by a mask that made Naruto really curious as to what was under it, and one of his eyes was covered by the Konoha hitai-ate. He was smiling, or at least, it looked like he was smiling. His uncovered eye was closed. Naruto also noticed that he had a copy of Icha Icha Paradise in his pocket.

Naruto could never understand just what people found so interesting about those books. Naruto had read the manuscripts. They were deadly dull. It was almost entirely drippy sentimentality and with some really boring parts mixed in.

"Ohayo, Kakashi-san," Tsunami said, "These are the children I told you about."

Kakashi looked over each of them in turn, and Naruto was sure that he saw something flicker, or maybe it was just a twitch, in the visible eye when it came to rest on him, but it was gone before he could tell what it really was.

"Oh, yes, I remember," Kakashi nodded, "I heard some people talking when we came here. You kids'll do pretty much anything for a small price, right?"

They all nodded.

"How did you notice that?" Shino asked, "Weren't you unconscious?"

"No," Kakashi shook his head, "While I was exhausted from the battle with Zabuza, I was still aware of everything."

He sat down, and Tsunami set the rest of breakfast out, as well as set some more chairs for Naruto and the others.

"Well, at least Zabuza's dead," Kiba sighed.

Naruto pretended to be very busy with his meal and not paying attention to the conversation.

"I'm not sure that Zabuza is dead," Kakashi said flatly.

"We did see him fall into the lake, and he never came out," Yumi said raising an eyebrow, "No one could have stayed under for that long, and the places where he could have gotten to land were in plain sight."

"The problem is, the wound I made shouldn't have been fatal, and as a former Kiri shinobi, the idea that he couldn't swim is laughable," Kakashi explained, "No, I'm certain that he's still alive, and that he had help somehow."

"I didn't smell anyone," Kiba protested, "and neither did Akamaru."

The puppy on Kiba's head yipped once in conformation.

"You didn't smell Zabuza at first either," Shino pointed out, "It looks like the Kiri ninja have learned about the Inuzuka's sense of smell and have figured out how to fool it completely."

"How would he have survived?" Yumi asked Kakashi, although from her tone it was hard to read whether she was confused or testing him, "We would have seen if someone had jumped in after him."

"Someone could have been there already, Kiri might have been working on a way to breathe underwater. It's mostly closed itself off from everyone, even its allies don't really know what they're up to most of the time."

The same could be said of Konoha, Naruto thought.

"Everyone knows that Kiri specializes in water jutsu, and it could be experimenting on all sorts of things," Kakashi continued, "He could have been alone and just used something that let him breathe; it's impossible to tell."

"Then you'll have to be ready at anytime for him to attack again," Shino said.

"No, he was injured too badly for him to attack anytime soon, it'll take some time," Yumi shook her head.

"That's a good thing too," Kakashi said, smiling again, "It's going to give you kids time to train a little as well as give me time to recover."

There was a motion in the doorway to the stairs and bedrooms, and Naruto looked out of the corner of his eye to see a kid standing in the doorway. He looked around at all of them and glared. He mumbled something that Naruto didn't quite catch but was sure he had heard the word 'die' and walked back up the stairs. Tsunami heard the sound and called out to him.

"Inari, come and greet our guests!"

"What's the use?" the boy yelled back, "They're all going to die anyways."

Naruto felt himself getting irritated with the boy but shoved it aside. It wasn't like he was going to have much to do with the brat. He probably wouldn't see much of him anyways, but, he promised himself, if he got too annoying Naruto would find some time to tell him just what he could do with the emo junk. Naruto really wasn't the sympathetic type.

"You'll have to excuse him," Tsunami said, bowing politely, "He's been that way for a while now…ever since…he saw his hero die."

Naruto wanted to ask more about it, but the expression on her face made him shut his mouth. Apparently, Inari wasn't the only one who had seen this person as a hero.

Yumi wasn't so subtle.

"Who?" she asked. Naruto got the feeling that she wasn't really curious, but was simply gathering the necessary information, not really caring if she hurt the people involved.

Tsunami looked out the window and sighed a little bit.

"My husband, Kaiza," she said softly.

"What happened to him?" Kiba asked. He seemed to have picked up on the information gathering, since it looked like this was the last question he wanted to ask.

"…He...he was a fisherman who had come here, looking for opportunities, and one day met Inari and saved his life. He became a father to Inari, who had never met his true father, and in time, and after plenty of failed proposals, I finally agreed to marry him. Those were happy times. Kaiza was very kind and very brave. He never gave up when he started something, no matter how badly he did at it, and he was always saying that no matter how bad something became, sooner or later, times would change. Unfortunately, his attitude was what killed him in the end. When Gato turned up, Kaiza did his best to stop Gato's business. Naturally, Gato would have none of that, and ordered his…men…to kill his as an example to anyone else who stood in his way."

"After that…the people here just kind of lost hope. No one dared to challenge Gato, and any strangers who talked about it were silenced… Inari especially has lost all faith. It's very rare for anyone in this town to do anything for someone else nowadays."

"What about these guys," Kiba jabbed his thumb at Hakumei.

"Taiki and his friends are a rarity, but even they don't go against Gato directly." Tsunami said, her voice sounded somewhat hollow. She was upset from talking about Kaiza, and the ninja didn't really seem to even care. Didn't they know where information gathering ended and sticking your nose into things that were none of your business began.

"Not yet," Sasuke muttered, "Once we start working though, we will be. Gato's made it pretty clear that he doesn't want that bridge built."

Sakura gave him a smirk.

Gaara kicked both of them under the table.

"Knock it off, you psychos," he hissed.

Naruto finished his breakfast and looked around at the others. They were about done, and were waiting for him.

"So, kids," Tazuna said, Naruto had the feeling that he was trying to change the subject, "Are you ready to work?"

"Yes, I think so," Sai answered.

"We're being paid aren't we?" Neji muttered.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Naruto couldn't tell whether it was at Tazuna's attitude or Neji's comment.

* * *

"Hey, Masaru," Sai called to Sasuke, "You need to move it a little to the left."

Sasuke, who had been the one to have to figure out how to use a crane, glared over at Sai, and ignored him.

"Masaru," Sai called again, "You need to move that beam a little to the left, and you're not moving fast enough."

"Do you want to do this?" Sasuke yelled.

"Not really,"

"Good, I'll do it, and you can either watch or go do something constructive, but don't stand there with a cool glass of water and give me advice!"

Naruto shook his head and busied himself with his job. As they had discovered, Gato had done a very good job of discouraging people from working with Tazuna. They were pretty much the only people working on the bridge, aside from one or two others and Tazuna himself, who mostly didn't do much other then get drunk and shout out orders. Because of this, Hakumei had all been given jobs that they would have never had under normal circumstances. It was dangerous work, and it was made even more dangerous by the mercenaries that loitered around, harassing them. They weren't able to do much at the moment other then threaten, but Naruto knew that things were going to change quickly. Once the jobs were done, and the people had gone home, they would sometimes be cornered and attacked.

They really were going to have to leave after this, if they didn't get exposed first.

Kakashi was on guard. He had turned up about an hour after they had, and was reading his book, and occasionally would look around at the workers. Naruto had the impression that his eye fell on him a lot more then it did on anyone else, and it made him nervous.

Did Kakashi recognize him?

That was impossible, Naruto told himself. How could he. It wasn't like they had ever seen one another before. No, it must have been something else. Maybe he was seeing through their act. That would be bad, but if what Jiraiya said was true, he wouldn't be too hard to convince.

Speaking of Jiraiya…

"Hey, Masaru, I have a question for you!" Naruto called over to Sasuke, "Take a break and let Ryou do it."

Sasuke looked somewhat confused but shrugged and jumped down.

Kakashi had just been pulled into conversation with Tazuna, so at least he wasn't going to be eavesdropping on that conversation.

"Hey, what's up with the Uchiha girl," Naruto asked.

"…She's a fake," Sasuke said quietly.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"I'm the youngest in the Clan, or at least I was," Sasuke hissed.

"So that makes her?"

"A problem," Sasuke muttered, "I don't know who she is, but unless there was an Uchiha my age that I didn't know about, she's a plant set there by Danzou."

"He's trained kids in ROOT like Sai too. Do you think he would know her?" Naruto asked thoughtfully.

"Probably not," Sasuke shook his head, "He said that he was in the fourth division, so that would mean there were a bunch of other people that he never saw."

"So you don't think she's an Uchiha at all?"

"No, she's just an imposter, and it would be impossible to prove it since women almost never activate the Sharingan, and that's the only surefire way to prove if you're an Uchiha."

"Too bad your family doesn't have a more obvious kekkei genkai," Naruto sighed, "Like the Byakugen."

"Ah, to have the Sharingan ready and waiting for me to activate at birth…" Sasuke said dreamily, "I guess you can't have everything in life."

"Nope, you just got all the fangirls," Naruto said cheerfully.

"Don't even mention fangirls," Sasuke hissed as if they could hear him.

"Fangirls!" Naruto said loudly.

"What are you two talking about," Neji asked walking up and looking annoyed, "Right where Kakashi can see and hear you?"

"He's not going to listen to us when we're talking in the open," Naruto said, "Especially not with Yuuma the mechanically impaired going around scaring people. I think that we've learned his weakness."

"Yeah," Sasuke muttered as they watched Kimimaro try to fix a relatively simple piece of equipment that had decided to break the second that he touched it and looked like it may be fixed once Kimimaro managed to figure out just how to use a hammer without breaking his hand or someone else's head.

"Hey, you two," Sakura yelled, "Get back to work!"

"Sorry, Emi," Neji said picking up the things he had sent down.

Naruto and Sasuke split up and Naruto went back to what he had been doing. He only noticed out of the corner of his eye when it was almost too late. One of the loitering men was fingering a large knife as he looked at the ropes that were holding up some of the steel bars that hadn't been completely attached to the rest of the frame yet. While most people used steel cable now, the ropes were cheaper, and Tazuna was on a pretty tight budget. Naruto hadn't really thought that much about it before, but he was thinking about what would happen if the ropes that were supporting a beam that was right above Tazuna were cut.

Naruto was too far away to appear without showing that he was a ninja, and he couldn't shoat out a warning because normal people wouldn't have noticed him. Kakashi was busy watching something that two other mercenaries were doing that looked suspiciously like they were carefully inserting an exploding tag into some equipment.

'_Please, please, please let someone else have noticed,'_ Naruto prayed. _'If we fail in this, how are we supposed to fight Danzou?'_

Neji was sauntering over to were Tazuna was, carrying a large load. Naruto knew that Neji had no business over there, and thanked every god he knew by name.

The man, who didn't seem to care if he killed some kid as well as the bridge builder, threw the knife. The knife hit one of the ropes and slashed through it at the instant that Neji tripped and knocked Tazuna back about four feet. The large steel beam crashed to the floor, missing Tazuna by inches.

Neji wasn't that lucky.

He was on the ground of the bridge, clutching his leg, and making noises of pain that would usually have only escape his lips if someone had just taken off the leg. Everyone else had dropped whatever they were doing and had run over to help him. His wound was more of a fairly deep cut then anything permanent. Naruto knew perfectly well that Neji had managed to get himself wounded enough to be considered suspicious, but not enough so that he would suffer any real lasting damage. The only real inconvenience was that Sakura couldn't heal him up.

Kakashi had come over and was looking at the ropes. The man who had thrown the knife had been knocked out and was sitting, tied up, and ready to be questioned once he woke up.

"This was cut," he said simply, "While the other two were planting a tag, this one was going to try to kill you directly. If it wasn't for Haru here, you would probably be dead. It looks like my whole team is going to have to be out here."

Tazuna was looking very nervous.

One of the men through down his equipment.

"I'm sorry, Tazuna-san, but this is just too much. I really am sorry, but I have a wife to think about, and this is the seventh time. I can't take this anymore!"

"That's fine," Tazuna said gruffly, "go home, you'll have a full day's pay for your work today."

The man bowed, "Gomenasai," he said quietly and ran off.

Two others followed him.

He looked over at Naruto and the rest, and looked like he was waiting for something.

"Hey, Masaru," Naruto said, "You're in charge, my and Ryou'll take Haru back to Tazuna-san's…as long as that's ok with you…"

Tazuna looked like he was at a loss for words, so he took a long drink for the saki jug that was always at his side.

"Yeah, go ahead," he finally said, "That kid looks like he needs a lie down, but you two had better be back here soon."

"Hai!" Naruto said cheerfully, bowed, and he had Haku supported Neji back across the bridge and towards Tsunami's house.

* * *

"So, what happened to you?" Kiba asked looking Neji over as he sat with one leg propped up on the table, "Have an _accident_,"

"Haru-san was very brave, he saved my father's life," Tsunami told the ninja with a small smile

Kiba looked over at Neji in an unimpressed way.

"What's the big deal, so he fell the moment that the beam fell, anyone could do that…" He said with a shrug.

"It's an lucky coincidence," was all that Shino said, and Naruto found himself wondering just how much that guy really had guessed.

"Hn," was all that Yumi said.

Naruto wondered if she and Sasuke really were related and if Sasuke was having memory loss.

"Yeah, well, we're going to be there most of the time now, so that would happen again," Kiba said, "I mean, you did good for civies, but…"

He let it trail off. Naruto really would have given anything to hit him right then. This was the ever smiling, good natured guy he had been friends with? The kid who had said he thought prejudices were stupid, and his opinion was formed by how people acted and preformed, not what people said about them?

What had happened while he was gone?

What was this 'emotional training' that Yumi had mentioned? When he was in the Academy, all that meant was learning how to accept the inevitable fact that death was the only assurance in a ninja's life, and if you couldn't accept that, then you we're fit to be a ninja. This didn't sound quite like that.

Naruto looked over that the rest of Hakumei, but, like him, it was impossible to tell by looking what they were thinking, aside from slightly irritated. He knew that Sasuke would be thinking along the same lines as him, and that he needed to talk to Sai, the only member who had known anything about Danzou about just what emotional training really was.

He knew from the few things Sai said about his life before he met them that he had also been in some kind of emotional training, but Sai didn't seem to like to talk much about it. His answers would get vague after a while and that fake smile that he got when he was talking to someone he didn't know or like or when he was upset but didn't want to show it would turn up.

Everyone was eating their dinner mostly in silence. Conversation was halting and prone to ending as peopled gazed into their meals and contemplated life, death, emotional training, and whether or not it was a good idea to continue this mission in the first place.

Inari seemed to have been forced to eat there by his mother. He was looking angry, and even more bratty then he had that morning, and Naruto had the strange desire to just punch him, knock the sense into him and go on about his business.

Sakura, Hinata, and Haku, the team medics, had all looked at Neji's leg. Even Naruto, who had never had any medical training could tell that the wound looked worse then it was, and it wouldn't have taken much to heal it.

Playing civilian was a real pain.

"I know the herbs that should be applied to it," Haku said out of the blue, "But I have to wait to get them until tomorrow."

"Why's that?" Tsunami asked.

"Some of them are only effective when the flowers are open, and that's only in the early morning," Haku explained, "So early tomorrow morning I'm going to need to go out."

"Do you want one of us to go with you?" Kakashi offered.

Yumi and Kiba's eyes flickered over to him, but Shino seemed indifferent.

They probably weren't happy about that offer.

"No, that's fine," Haku smiled, "We don't have the money, and besides, what are the chances of my getting attacked."

"Pretty good," Tazuna said after a long pause, "I think you kids should stay here for a while. At least until the bridge is done, that way nothing will happen to you. After all, we've got the ninja here."

"That may be a good idea," Tsunami agreed, "Haru saved father's life, and I'm sure that they'll be angry you interfered."

"As long as we're not causing too much trouble…" Hinata said pressing her fingers together. It was an old way to show her as shy, but she seldom used it anymore unless she had something to gain by it.

From the expression on Inari's face, they were causing too much trouble.

"Oh, it's no trouble," Tsunami said, "As long as you don't mind staying down here. I have plenty of spare blankets and the girls can stay in the living room and the boys can stay here."

The prospect of sleeping on the hard kitchen floor wasn't really something Naruto was looking forwards too, but it wasn't all to different then sleeping on the hard stone floor of that abandoned building.

"What do you guys that?" Naruto asked the others.

Gaara shrugged in a way that said that since he didn't sleep anyways, it didn't matter to him where they stayed.

Kimimaro looked like it would have liked to said no but was going to accept it.

The others nodded.

"That's a yes," Naruto said with a grin, "Where are those blankets?"

"How can you be so calm?" the voice of Inari suddenly cut in, "You're going to die anyways, so why do you fight back?"

In a flash, before anyone could say anything, he had run upstairs. Naruto would have liked to have run after him, but, after some internal struggle managed not to.

"The blankets are in the closet here," Tsunami said. She was probably upset by how Inari acted but wasn't going to let anyone see just how upset she was.

Naruto looked up the stairs and sighed. He wasn't sure who was more annoying: Inari or the Konoha genin.

* * *

**Omake: **Kiba's Bad Night

Kiba was jolted awake when Akamaru barked an alarm. He looked around, and noticed that Shino didn't seem to have moved at all. That was strange since his bugs usually alerted him when something was going on. Akamaru was standing in the center of the room and was growling slightly.

"What's up?" Kiba asked groggily.

"_Listen!"_ Akamaru yipped.

There was something rattling somewhere in the room.

Kiba felt some hair on the back of his neck rise. For some reason there was something completely unsettling about it.

Kiba sniffed, but he didn't smell anything that hadn't been there that night. There was something in the room, and he couldn't smell it out.

There was a creaking sound, and Kiba looked towards one corner of the room. What he saw there made the rest of his hair stand on end.

Kiba's eyes were better then most people, so he was able to see the closet door slowly creaking open and the skeletal hand that was slowly reaching over the side of the door and towards him.

Kiba was frozen, all of his training had said nothing about what to do when attacked by a ghost or any other form of dead thing.

"A-Akamaru…is that…really…" Kiba's voice trailed off.

"_I-I think it is…"_ Akamaru whined.

Kiba then did the one thing that had worked from his childhood on and had never failed in any account.

He pulled the cover his blanket over his head and allowed Akamaru to hide with him, both were whimpering slightly.

"You know," Neji said to Kimimaro, "you're sadistic."

Kimimaro nodded. He was leaning back in his seat downstairs with a glass of milk.

"I'm really sick of how he's been acting, and I needed someone to test that hand trick out on. I've never tried to make my skeleton move around when I wasn't touching it before."

"I don't see how that will help against enemies…" Sai pointed out.

"It won't," Kimimaro agreed, "but you have to admit, it's kind of cool."

* * *

_Sorry, I really wanted to update this sooner, but my birthday, school starting, and a few other things got in the way. Well, at least I managed to keep my three week quota going. Well, I've introduced a little of what Konoha is like, but I'm not done yet. Things are going to be worse before they get better. _

_Because I'm going to be messing with things so much, I wanted to say that I will not do anything for purposes that don't have to do with the story. For instance, I can't stand Sasuke in the manga, but I use him as a main character because he, to me, would be a better protagonist that antagonist. That and he's almost always an antagonist, and I wanted to do something different._

_Also, if I kill or spare someone it has nothing to do with liking or disliking them. I spare them because they are more useful to be alive then dead, and I kill them because they are more useful dead then alive. It's a bit heartless I know.. _

_Shino's a surprisingly hard character to write, and I really hate writing Yumi._

_Additional notes:_

_Icha Icha Paradise: Judging by Jiraiya, I'm betting that series would be so sappy it's not even funny as well as…well…yeah…_

_About Sasuke being the youngest Uchiha: When I was looking at Sasuke's flashbacks I got the strange feeling that there were few children in this clan. Actually, judging by the things that were said, the Uchiha clan had stagnated, and few children were being born. Sasuke was never shown playing with Uchiha children his own age, and Shisui was older then Itachi. This also makes sense because of the fact that they were only marrying other Uchihas. The blood was getting weak._

_Review!_


	10. Part 2: Precious People

_Author's Corner: Well, it looks like things are going nicely. I've been thinking hard about parts of this chapter, but I don't see this chapter as a major deviation from the original plot. It's just introducing a few new things. I'm so glad that this story has gotten the attention that it has. Thanks for the reviews, favs and alerts, everyone. It really makes doing this fun to know that you like it so much._

_I also want to thank Ibby for betaing for me. I really appreciate it._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra holds no part of Naruto, she is merely playing 'twist the plot and see what happens'._

_**The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.**_

_**-Vince Lombardi**_

* * *

Haku actually liked to get up early in the morning. He had never been able to sleep in for much longer than seven anyway. Getting up with the sun really didn't bother him at all. He was up before the others, Kimimaro was probably going to sleep late since he had had a little 'fun' with Kiba that night, and it usually took a lot to wake up Naruto or Neji, when he was sick.

Hinata's eyes opened briefly when he passed the living room, but she nodded, knowing just what he was going out for. Sakura didn't even move; she was too used to his footsteps. Gaara was sitting on the porch watching the dawn come.

"Has anything happened?" Haku asked.

"Nothing worth mentioning," Gaara shook his head, "There haven't been any signs of life that I didn't expect to hear, other than the fact that someone found one of the traps that we set around the house."

"I bet that was exciting for him." Haku smiled at the thought. All of them had been rather creative with their traps.

"Yeah, he fell into Naruto's, which made him fall into yours," Gaara was smirking a little.

"Um, I really wasn't expecting anyone to fall into it…" Haku trailed off, "I mean, Naruto's pit that was filled with…what was it again?"

"I don't know, but it smelled awful," Gaara shook his head, "I don't know where he got it, but he really worked hard to get it. Whatever it was, it wasn't too bad compared to what happened when he crawled out, only to face your barrage of senbon leading straight into a patch of those hallucinogenic mushrooms."

"Was he really bad?" Haku asked guiltily.

"He ran up thinking that I was a buxom blonde woman of about twenty something," Gaara told him, "Then he decided that I was his…mother…"

Haku didn't know what to say to that.

"Naruto and Hinata were right, you know," Gaara said, turning back to the sunrise, "You really are a closet evil mastermind."

Haku didn't bother to tell him that that wasn't true. It had been said so many times, and there was nothing that he had ever been able to say to stop the joke. Some times he supposed that it was best to ignore some things.

He left Gaara to his thoughts on the morning and began on the path. It would probably take him some time to find what he was looking for. The herbs he needed weren't uncommon, but they were picky about where they grew. The forest looked like a good place to start. He would need to find a clearing and with some water close by, but not right on it.

He swung the basket in his hands absently.

He hadn't been as talented with medical ninjutsu as Sakura or Hinata, but he had shown remarkable talent with herbs and their uses. He liked to work with them as well, they were effective, they seemed so simple and, if applied right, they could have rather interesting effects on people too, but Haku only studied a little of that. Usually, he didn't need to use his herbs, so he only had the ones that he absolutely needed or where very rare stored in small scrolls that he carried with him.

Some splashes of sunlight were beginning to make their way through the trees and he could see a small clearing up ahead. Haku walked a little faster, since he really didn't want to have to fight with someone who found him out there. While Haku didn't mind fighting, as long as killing wasn't involved, he liked to avoid a battle when at all possible.

He entered the clearing and was temporarily blinded by the sunlight, but when his eyes had adjusted, he realized that he wasn't alone. There was someone at the other side of the clearing leaning over some plants, examining them.

She was about his age, with dark hair that was in two low pig tails that ended a little past her neck. Her clothes were simple and seemed to be mostly made up of bandages. Some of them were on her face as well, Haku realized as she turned to him. Her eyes were dark too, and Haku couldn't ever remember seeing such a defeated looking person.

"Um, hello," he called.

The girl started, she probably hadn't seen him come up. She relaxed a little when she saw him, but Haku could see that part of her was just as on her guard as it would have if she had stiffed.

"…is this place yours…" she asked.

Her voice was soft, but somewhat dead. Haku noticed that her head was down most of the time, and she seemed like she didn't want to make direct eye contact with him. He wondered if she was self-conscious because of the bandages.

"No," Haku said with a small smile, "I don't know who this forest belongs to, if anyone. I'm here to get some herbs for a friend who needs them."

"Oh," the girl said softly, "I'm here for the same reason."

"Then there's no reason why we can't pick these herbs together," Haku said, "My name is Haku."

"…Isaribi," the girl said, not looking at him again, but Haku could tell that she was telling the truth.

Haku walked up and joined her in bending over the herbs. Isaribi seemed to know a little about herb lore, but some of the herbs that were very useful for medical purposes were ones that she was ignoring. Haku wasn't sure if this was on purpose or accidental, so he decided to ask.

"Is your friend sick or wounded?" Haku asked.

"Why do you want to know," she was suddenly defensive. Her eyes had the look of a cornered rabbit, wide, afraid, desperate.

"Well, it affects the herbs," Haku didn't act like he had noticed anything, "some of the herbs that you're picking up are good for treating wounds, but you're leaving others that are just as good."

"Oh…" Isaribi murmured, "My…friend…is wounded. He was hurt by a sharp object that pieced part of his side."

"Then they should use some of these," Haku gestured over to a group of small plants with white, star like flowers, "They're probably the most useful for treating wounds, and they only open at this time of day."

"Thank you…" Isaribi said, bowing slightly, "you're very kind, ma'am."

Haku almost groaned and explained that he was a guy, but decided against it. She was so nervous anyways that if he told her he was male, she might run away, thinking he was going to molest her or something.

For a while they picked their herbs is silence, but then Isaribi spoke in halting tones.

"Why are you working so hard for your…friend?" she asked, "Are they going to help you?"

Haku laughed a little, "You might be able to say that. They help me all the time, but I don't think that it's in the way you mean. Tell me, is your friend a precious person to you? Are they someone who you wish to protect?"

"W-what do you mean?" Isaribi asked.

"It's only when they're protecting someone that a person can truly be strong. Everyone has something or someone to them that is so precious that it's worth dying for." Haku said, "People form bonds with one another, protect their 'precious people' and are protected in turn. It's this cycle of protecting and being protected, caring and being cared for that people understand as loyalty, friendship, and even love. Yes, my friend does something for me, all of them do: they acknowledge my existence."

"Bonds like that only hinder you," Isaribi said coldly, "My friend is someone who I need at the moment, but that's all."

Haku smiled gently as he picked his herbs.

"That's not true even in nature. For instance, nothing is more dangerous then a mother that is protecting its children. Animals will attack and win against enemies that they should have been crushed by. In my opinion, the only way to became truly strong and truly happy is to have people around you who are precious."

"I disagree," Isaribi shook her head, "It's a sweet way to see the world and a kind one, but the world isn't like that. The only person who you can trust is yourself, and you do what you can to help yourself."

"Well," Haku said, not really wanting to get into a conflict over opposing philosophies, "Maybe one day we'll see each other again, and well be able to see who's belief is best, but unfortunately I have to leave now, I have all that I needed."

Isaribi looked somewhat disappointed in this turn of events. Haku wondered if she was actually enjoying their disagreement. Perhaps she didn't know all that many people. Haku straightened and prepared to leave when he heard the sound of Isaribi clearing her throat. Haku turned around, his eyebrows raised.

"I…hope that your dreams don't get replaced with my reality," she said softly.

Haku knew that he should probably be offended by the way she had said that, but couldn't find it in himself. To be honest, (and he hated to admit it, even to himself) he sort of pitied her. She was someone who really had nothing. Haku had known that feeling longer then he would have liked, and he wondered just what would have happened to him if he hadn't met Naruto that night. Would he have latched onto some other person in desperation, or would he have become like Isaribi, cold, untrusting, and sure that bonds with people only caused sorrow?

"And I hope that your reality shows itself to be more kind then you thought," Haku walked away and stopped with his back towards her, "and by the way…I'm male."

Isaribi stopped, and looked at the retreating back of the…boy. She had completely thought that he was a woman. He didn't act like any of the men that she had met, and Isaribi had met quite a few. He had seemed polite, and usually when she met people, they would glare at her in a suspicious way and whisper behind their hands when she was gone.

Before she could orient herself to say anything else on the matter, Haku was gone.

She stood, looking after him for some time, but returned to her own work. Zabuza would need these soon, and he was in pain. He was always more unpleasant when he was in pain. Isaribi wished that she had had the presence of mind to ask Haku what kind of herbs would sweeten the Demon of the Mist's disposition, but she doubted that much could be done. She hoped that she wouldn't meet Haku again. He had seemed like a kind person, and Isaribi had little experience with those kinds of people.

At any rate, even if he was a kind person, if he got in her way, or Zabuza's way at the moment, he would have to be eliminated.

Nothing would stand in the way of Isaribi becoming fully human again.

Even if it involved becoming the monster that people said she was.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes blearily and sat up. Sai was still sleeping in a corner and Kimimaro was snoring slightly, but Sasuke and Neji were awake and Gaara was probably still outside.

Sasuke and Neji were deeply involved in a game of shogi. Both of them had wonderful faces for it when they wanted to. They both looked like they were brooding.

Naruto mumbled a good morning and ambled into the kitchen. Tsunami wasn't awake yet, and neither were the Genin. Naruto had a feeling that Kiba would probably take a while to drag out of bed. Kakashi was up, reading a letter that had come from the messenger hawk that was sitting at the window, probably waiting for a reply.

"Ohayo, Kakashi-san," Naruto said, bowing slightly.

"Ohayo, Taiki-kun," Kakashi looked up from his letter. Something told Naruto that Kakashi wasn't all too happy with the content of the letter.

"We're a bit early for breakfast aren't we?" Naruto said, looking around, "do you know when Tsunami-san will be up?"

"Unfortunately no," Kakashi shook his head, "She seemed very tired last night."

Naruto sighed. Actually he felt a little on the nervous side with Kakashi. The looks that he was giving Naruto always made him uneasy. He knew that this was probably a good time to give Kakashi that letter, but something held him back. Jiraiya had said that Kakashi was connected with some group that was against Danzou, but did he know that Kakashi was really against Danzou or just some sort of spy. Naruto needed some kind of proof. After all, giving Kakashi the letter might lead to revealing who he was, and that would lead to some rather unpleasant answers that might end with him dead.

Naruto had heard of Sharingan Kakashi. The man was well known to be one of the most dangerous opponents during the wars, and Kumo had sent up prayers of thanks when he had been assigned a rookie Genin team. He was the only non-Uchiha to have the Sharingan thanks to the dying gift of Uchiha Obito. Obito's name had been disgraced among the Uchiha but the damage had been done. The fact was that Kakashi had the Sharingan, and there wasn't going to be an easy way to take it away. So, Kakashi had kept the Sharingan eye, became ANBU and even now that ANBU was unofficially disbanded, he was still ANBU level.

Naruto knew that he was good, but probably not that good, yet.

"Crud," he muttered.

Kakashi smiled.

"You kids are pretty specific about being paid for your work," he said, sounding amused.

"Well, food isn't all easy to come by," Naruto said with a shrug, "we do what we can."

"Even go against Gato?"

"Even go against Gato," Naruto nodded, "There's a lot of stupid things hunger makes you do. We tried to do street performances once, but that didn't work out so well, or maybe it worked too well. I'm not sure. The point is we didn't get paid."

"How long have you kids been together?" Kakashi asked.

"About six years now," Naruto didn't lie, that would be too easy to see through. They showed no signs of ever having parents. Besides, the best lies had some truth in them.

"You kids must have been pretty young," Kakashi nodded, "Did you all know each other before,"

"Yes and no," Naruto shrugged, "some of us knew each other, but not all of us."

"I see. You guys were pretty lucky," Kakashi commented.

"Yeah, that's about the right word too," Naruto agreed, this was getting nowhere, "We really should have died out there, but we didn't. You should see the winters around here…"

It was pretty clear that both of them were going to dance in circles around one another, and could do so all day. Mercifully, they were interrupted by the arrival of Haku, carrying herbs.

"Is that all you're going to need?" Naruto asked.

"I think so," Haku said thoughtfully, "I have all of the ones I had to get this morning that I'm going to need for a while, but some of the more common ones may run out."

"Should someone stay with him?" Naruto asked, a slight grin on his face.

"I don't think Haru would appreciate that…" Haku trailed off at the look on Naruto's face, "You really like teasing us don't you?"

"The only thing better then practical jokes is annoying Haru or Masaru," Naruto was grinning ever more.

"I don't really think its necessary…" Haku mumbled.

Further conversation was interrupted by the sound of footsteps and Kiba, with Akamaru, appeared with Shino behind him. Kiba looked awful. There were circles under his eyes as deep as Gaara's, and he looked a little jumpy for some reason. Shino didn't seem any different from yesterday, so apparently what ever had kept Kiba up, hadn't done a thing to Shino.

"What's up?" Naruto asked with a grin, "Have a wild night howling at the moon?"

Kiba looked like he would have liked to say something back but was a little too tired to bother.

"Kiba seems to have had trouble getting to sleep," Shino said in his usual toneless voice.

"Well, you still have lots of training to do this morning," Kakashi said, smiling.

Naruto couldn't help but feel that Kakashi was enjoying himself.

Sasuke stuck his head out of the room he and the others were sharing.

"Is Tsunami-san up yet?" he asked.

"No," Naruto told him.

Sasuke sighed and turned back inside, "Fine Haru, we'll do the tie breaker round."

Those two could never break a tie. Sasuke was excellent at finding the weaknesses in Neji's strategies, but Neji had this weird ability to analyze people and base moves on the character of the opponent. In the end, they were a great pair to have to go against one another. Naruto was better at making strategies on the field when the other's plans failed, and he wasn't as good at shogi as he would like to be.

"What are they doing?" Kiba asked, yawning.

"Playing shogi," Naruto said.

"What, like old men?" Kiba asked derisively.

"That's an interesting hobby for civilian children," Shino said raising an eyebrow, "Shogi was originally a risk free way for people to learn strategy with the inevitable losses that would come from an inexperienced general. Some ninja still teach those children who have talent to play."

Naruto shrugged. Was Shino always this creepy or was it just now?

"I guess," Naruto said with a shrug, "we found an old shogi board once, and that's how Haru and Masaru got addicted to it. Yuuma and Shinta are good too, but the girls, Ryou, Hideaki and I never really liked it as much."

Naruto eyes met Shino's glasses. Shino was too smart for his own good. For the first time, Naruto wished that Sasuke had activated the Sharingan. After all, it would be able to hypnotize a person.

"Yo, sensei," Kiba said, bored with the discussion, "what do we have to do today?"

Shino turned towards Kakashi and seemed interested in the conversation.

Naruto was really going to have to do something about that guy.

"I'm sorry to have slept in," the cheerful voice of Tsunami broke into Naruto's internal debate on how best to deal with Shino, "Breakfast will be ready in a minute."

Yumi didn't appear until much breakfast was almost through, but it didn't look as if she had over slept, and the contrary, she looked like she had been up for a while doing some kind of warm ups. She looked at all of them coldly, and didn't even wish her team a good morning. She nodded at Shino and didn't even notice Kiba.

"When are we beginning our training for the day, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked, completely ignoring the prior conversation between Tsunami and Sakura about recipes.

"Well, I was thinking that since you've cleared the tree climbing stage, you need to wait for Kiba and Shino to catch up," Kakashi said, "So, you're going to help me watch our client."

Kiba and Shino were still working on tree climbing? What were they teaching in the academy? Apparently, Danzou was more worried about getting the kids into the right mindset by the time they graduated then actually changing the teaching schedule.

"He's doing that so he can get out of work isn't he?" Naruto whispered to Sasuke.

"Looks like it," Sasuke hissed back.

"What a lazy sensei," Hinata commented in just as soft a voice.

"I can hear you!" Kiba said, indignant that they would try to have a quiet conversation.

"Is there something you disagree with?" Sai asked.

"…no, but that's not the point!" Kiba shouted angrily but was cut off by the cold stare of Yumi's black eyes.

"You're an embarrassment to Konoha," Yumi said, "If the civilians want to make themselves feel better then by all means, let them go ahead. They're the ones who are going to spend the rest of their lives depending on us."

Yumi must have been related to Sai. She shared his offensive abilities.

"You're very rude and not at all ladylike," Sai said, smiling widely.

There was dead silence in the room.

"You're right," Sasuke said, "I would have thought that an Uchiha would be more polite as they are the must powerful bloodline in Fire Country, but I guess I was wrong."

The silent statement _they're no different than anyone else_ could be clearly understood.

"Would you like me to show you what an Uchiha is capable of?" Yumi asked.

"Not really," Sasuke said, smirking, "I like living."

"And what's to stop me?" Yumi asked.

"You're going to take the bait of some lowly civilian like me?" Sasuke said raising an eyebrow.

_Not at all proper for someone from one of the greatest clans in the world._

"Now, now, everyone, settle down," Kakashi said, finally becoming involved.

Yumi was silent but her eyes stayed on Sasuke for quiet a while after that.

Naruto wasn't sure just what his friend had done, other then throw a challenge in the girl's face. Sasuke knew all the right buttons to push an Uchiha with, and he seemed to be doing a good job, or at least Yumi was really getting into her part. Sasuke seemed to be deliberately antagonizing her, but he had never really talked about his family before he left, and Naruto had formed the idea that he didn't really like his family much. Maybe Sasuke was just doing it because he was sick of her attitude…

"Ryou, is Haru going to need anymore treatment before we all get back?" Hinata asked.

"I don't think so," Haku shook his head.

Neji had been brought his breakfast in his room, where he had been forbidden to move by Haku. He didn't seem happy, but he had long ago learned to do what medics said. Tsunade and Sakura were both violent, Hinata was simply unyielding, and Haku would force you into unconsciousness. He had grumbled and complained about being forced to sit in bed listening to Inari tell him he was going to die, but that didn't cut it as an excuse.

"Good, I didn't want any more of you staying here then absolutely necessary. After all, you kids are now my primary workforce," Tazuna said, trying to sound cheerful, but the reality of the situation sobered him up before he could even begin to laugh at his own joke.

The man was stressed. His bad jokes, his forced cheerfulness all pointed to it. Well, who wouldn't, he was the only man standing up to the most powerful business man in the region and the only things he had on his side were some ninja that couldn't really be trusted and a few stray kids that were working for food.

"Let's start," Sakura grumbled, "I hate waiting for things."

"As long as he doesn't have to be anywhere near me," Sai said, pointing at Kimimaro, "I'm worried he might make something explode."

"Shut up before I impale you," Kimimaro muttered.

"Well," Naruto said, getting up from the table, "before we go I have to go take-"

"No one wants to hear it!" Sakura cut in.

"-some time out," Naruto finished, "What'd ya think I was going to say?"

"Who knows, coming from you," Sasuke muttered, "and yes, ladies, he's still single."

Hinata blushed a little.

"I know," Sakura said, "and he's likely to remain so for a while."

Hinata's blush deepened, but she was smiling slightly.

"Yeah, yeah, make fun!" Naruto said in mock anger, "You'll regret it one day!"

He left the room and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. There was a window in that room, which made it perfect for what he was going to do. That bridge was getting pretty close to being done, and Gato was going to start playing dirty. Someone had to watch the house all the time, and since they couldn't just heal Neji and have him pretend to still be injured (blast Tsunami, she knew too much about that) someone would have to stick around. The only choice was the one person who had a power that would allow him to be in two places at the same time.

Him.

Naruto put his hands together and whispered, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu,"

There was a small puff of smoke, and there were suddenly two Narutos looking at each other.

"Why do I have to be the one to work on the bridge," the clone complained.

"Because if we run into an enemy, one punch will make you disappear, and I might not get there in time," Naruto said.

This brought 'talking to yourself' to a whole new level.

"Alright, fine," the clone said, sounding unhappy, "but this stinks, you know that."

Naruto shrugged, "Someone's gotta do it, and you're a clone, so deal with it!"

Naruto didn't bother to wait to hear his double's response. He knew from experience that it was almost impossible to convince his Kage Bushin of anything. He just dished out orders, and they knew better then to disobey. Naruto would just dispel it.

He climbed out the window and jumped to the ground. There was no one around, and Naruto had the urge to wait until everyone was gone and just slack off. He shook if off and waited for them to leave. Hopefully, it would be soon.

About fifteen minutes later, the door opened and everybody left. Kiba and Shino went in the direction that Haku had said he was going to pick herbs in, and everyone else went with Tabuza towards the bridge. His clone was acting like nothing was going on, but from the look of Hinata, she already knew; good, she would manage to tell Sakura, and the word would spread around. That way there would be no awkward moment explaining why 'Taiki' had disappeared in a puff of smoke when someone hit him.

Naruto waited for a while and took off into the woods, in a different direction to Shino or Kiba. It was probably going to be a very boring day.

* * *

Naruto had been basically doing nothing most of the day, and was starting to feel slightly guilty for leaving everyone with all the work while he did nothing more than admire the landscape around Tazuna and Tsunami's house.

He had thought that Gato was going to do something smart, but it looked like he had overestimated him. Gato appeared to be just as stupid as his name sounded. If it were Naruto, he would have sent someone to do something to Tsunami and her son to break Tazuna's spirit. Gato wasn't someone who played fair, therefore he must simply not have thought of it.

How had he made it as a crime lord?

Naruto had been circling the property for while, steering clear of where Kiba or Shino were, but he hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. Other than the usual wildlife, there was nothing in the forest. Naruto supposed he should be pleased, but really he was just annoyed, and he was going to have to deal with the others being annoyed that he had just run off on work.

Maybe he could make something up?

Naruto kept going from tree to tree, but he wasn't looking quite as hard. He almost had a fit when he saw the two ninja almost right in front of him.

They were both older men, and were wearing full ninja gear, their faces were covered by breathing masks. They hadn't seemed to notice Naruto. Actually, they seemed far too interested in their own conversation to notice much of anything.

"This is our chance to redeem ourselves," the first one said.

"But Gato-san doesn't know we're here," the other one said, "are you sure that he'll be pleased?"

"Why wouldn't he be?" the first one asked, "While his stupid mercenaries attack the workers, we're going to attack the bridge builder's heart. It'll completely save our reputation."

"What about those Konoha nin?" the second one asked.

"They'll regret that they ever crossed the Demon Brothers,"

"You know, I never quite got Kiri's thing with demons," Naruto cut in, landing on a branch in front of them, "I mean, they're not the kind of role models I ever wanted."

"Who the heck are you?" the second one asked.

"Nobody," Naruto said lightly, "just some kid that was hired to keep you from doing what you're about to do."

From what Naruto could see of the eyes, he was smiling.

"Some kid was hired to stop us?" the first said.

"Too bad for you," the second snarled.

The first made a move to look like he was going to reach behind him, but with a twitch of his hand, he threw one of the long chained claw that was attached to his hand at Naruto. Naruto jumped out of the way and barely missed being impaled. As it was, the branch that he was standing on was torn off.

In midair, Naruto took out three kunai and threw them, but not before making the succession of seals.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled.

The kunai that Naruto had thrown multiple into about fifty, making the Demon Brothers jump out of the way of the barrage of kunai. Both of them tried to send out their clawed hands at him again, but they missed. Naruto could see that the claws looked like they had been thoroughly marinated in poison, and he had no wish to test out just how much the Kyuubi wanted to live.

"You guys need to use a different technique," Naruto said.

"Why?" the second one asked, "It seems to be working just FINE!"

The last word was accompanied by the chained claw. Naruto didn't jump this time. He moved a little so that the chain soared past him. Naruto grabbed the chain and yanked hard. The second Demon Brother let out a surprised noise that the kid could do that, but the force of the chain, along with Naruto's help, caused him to overbalance and made him actually fall into his brother, who was right next to him. Both of them fell off of the tree branch they were on, and hit the ground with a loud thud.

They jumped out just as fast and looked around for their opponent. Naruto jumped to the ground and straightened. He didn't have any weapons in his hands, but he was tense and looked like he was about to charge.

"You'll have to do better than that," the older one said with a sneer.

"Alright," Naruto said with a grin. He straightened and his hands fell into the one seal needed. "Jibaku Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

For the first time they noticed that they were standing in a circle that had been made up of Naruto's Shuriken Kage Bushin.

"Boom," Naruto whispered.

There was a blast that caused Naruto's ears to ring for a moment, and disorient him. The smoke from the blast cleared; thankfully it wasn't enough to get any unwanted attention, leaving a large, fairly deep hole.

Naruto walked to the edge and looked around for the Demon Brothers. That attack shouldn't have killed them. It was a trap that was more designed to create a hole deep enough and to injure them enough for them not to be able to get away easily. Naruto was more interested in interrogating them for information on Gato's plans than really killing them. His eyes fell on the forms of the two brothers. One had fallen at an odd angle and looked like he had broken his leg, and the other had managed to fall in a way that twisted his arm in a way that it wasn't meant to twist.

"How did you guys escape from the Konoha nin?" Naruto asked curiously, "I mean you guys stink, but hey, I don't care. So, you guys want to get out of there, right?"

Both brothers were silent.

"If you answer my questions, I'll allow you to leave," Naruto said with a grin.

"I think not…" the first one said quietly, "Our dignity as Kiri nin would never allow such a thing."

"Yes, aniki!" the second put in, "It is a ninja's duty to never allow themselves to be interrogated."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"Oh crap," he muttered jumping down, but not in time to stop them from biting down hard on something.

The Demon Brothers' eyes rolled back into their heads and they collapsed completely, twitching slightly. Naruto landed and began swearing fluently. He turned one of them over, but the twitching had already started to fade away. Naruto pulled off the mask and wrenched the mouth open to see a small pill that they both probably had in their mouths just for such an occasion.

They were dead in one minute.

Naruto sighed and jumped out of the hole. Now he had to cover this mess up before Kakashi or one of the Genin saw it.

* * *

The looks that the others were giving him told Naruto just what everyone thought of his running out and leaving them to do all the work, even though he did leave a Kage Bunshin.

Sakura was making a frequent habit of cracking her knuckles as often as she could without making people look at her. Gaara was looking a little exasperated and rolled his eyes when Naruto looked at him. Sai was smiling his fake smile, which, when aimed at him or any other member of Hakumei, usually meant trouble. Hinata was glancing at him every so often, it was hard to tell what she was thinking, but it probably wasn't good. Neji's gaze was much easier to read: Just you wait till we're alone. Kimimaro was cracking the bones his in hands, and would occasionally smile up at Naruto, Naruto wasn't reassured. Haku was the only one who didn't look mad, he just looked a little hurt, but Naruto would explain everything…he'd have to. Sasuke was very quiet, which was all Naruto needed to see. When he was very quiet, it meant that he was brooding and plotting, and Arashi no Sasuke was probably the most vengeful person Naruto would ever meet.

Once again, they were sitting at the kitchen table. This time even Inari was there, looking sulky. His mother had probably told him to be polite to his guests.

Kiba was complaining about boring training, Shino looked like he was playing with a bug on his finger, Yumi was eating her meal wordlessly and Kakashi was talking to Tazuna about the best ways to prevent burglars.

"Did anything happen today?" Tsunami asked, as she set some more food on the table.

"Someone," Sai said, looking at Kimimaro, "managed to almost kill me with a flying socket wrench."

"For the last time, it wasn't my fault," Kimimaro grumbled, "How was I supposed to know it would do that."

Sai shrugged, "Maybe you could read the instructions?"

"Hmph,"

"How far are you along, Kiba-kun, Shino-kun?" Tsunami asked again, trying to get a conversation going.

"I'm almost at the top of the tree," Kiba said with a smirk.

"I'm done," Shino said softly.

"You fell off," Kiba pointed out.

"At the beginning because you fell on me," Shino said in the same monotone voice.

"I told you not to mention that!" Kiba snarled, "Just you wait till Akamaru and I save your sorry hide in real battle, Shino. Once Danzou-sama lets us go to war-"

"Alright you two, it's time for us to get to sleep," Kakashi said, "We have a long day tomorrow, and Kiba, you still have training."

"Aw, crud," Kiba grumbled.

"Good night all," Kakashi said.

"You know, you're not my mom," Kiba growled.

"No, I'm your commander," Kakashi agreed, "Now, go to bed."

Kiba gave him a look of intense anger, but did as he was told, Shino followed without a word.

"I'm going to have to ask you too, Yumi-chan," Kakashi said. "Just because you're not training doesn't mean you get extra privileges."

"Hai, sensei," she said in a neutral tone, leaving the room.

"Is everything alright?" Tsunami asked.

Kakashi smiled, "Everything's fine, they just need to rest. I noticed that Kiba was looking pretty tired earlier, so I thought it might be a good idea for him to have some extra sleep.

Kimimaro snickered a little.

"I take it you kids played a little joke on him?" Kakashi asked suddenly, but smiled a little, "Don't worry, I'm not mad, but you should have a little more respect for them. They may be your age or even younger, but they've been trained to protect you, and if they had to, they'd die for you."

Somehow Naruto doubted that Yumi would die to save Sasuke.

"Well, Kiba needs someone to pop his ego for him," Naruto said, looking unconcerned, but knowing that his response was probably important.

"Yeah," Sakura agreed, "if someone doesn't, he'll have trouble going through the doors. Especially when he starts winning battles."

"Yeah, the enemy shinobi will have an easy target," Sai chipped in.

"You make me sick!"

All eyes turned to face the speaker. Inari had stood up, his hands balled into fists, and his teeth clenched.

"You all make me so sick!" he yelled and pointed at Naruto, "Especially you! You laugh and make jokes and don't know anything about suffering! You're all going to die you know that! Gato's got his mercenaries and he'll kill you like he's killed everyone else!"

"So we should just give up?" Naruto asked calmly. "So you're saying that when you're faced with someone who might win you should just belly up because you might just die?"

"That's just what I'm talking about!" Inari was screaming, "You're so stupid! You don't understand anything! You've never had anything bad happen to you!"

"Shut up, before I make you brat," Naruto hissed, "and don't talk about things that you don't know anything about! You know something, brat, I'm not afraid of dying, and if I have a choice of being like you and dying, I'll shake hands with the Shinigami! I'm not going to be the protagonist of my own tragedy!"

"You don't know how bad life is!" Inari yelled.

"Oh look," Naruto said, looking at his friends, "Inari's had some rough times so now he's going to get on a soap box and preach to the world! But ya wanna know something? The world really doesn't care what you've been through. There's no one alive who's never known suffering or sadness, and there is always someone out there with a bigger sob story then yours!

I'm really sorry about your dad and all, but maybe you should think about someone other than yourself. Your mom and grandpa are fighting just to keep you alive and give you a future, and what are you doing? Whining about how no one knows what you've been through! What about your mom? She loved him, ya know, and she misses him too. So shut up and stop being such a baby!"

Naruto didn't know what came over him; he had yelled it and run outside without thinking. It had been a long time since he'd even thought of the past, but all this kid did was remind him of his and everyone's pain. He saw Sakura curled in on herself sobbing, trying to hide her forehead, Sasuke pushing himself to the limit only to have his parents tell him that one day he might be almost as good as his brother, Kimimaro sitting in a dark cell staring at the walls, Haku walking through the snow away from his ruined house and the father he had murdered, Sai, nothing more then an emotionless shell, doing the bidding of a warlord, Gaara watching the other children running away from him in abject terror and clutching his head in horror at the things the monster inside of him wanted him to do, Hinata sobbing in frustration as she mistook another step and looked into the harsh eyes of her father, Neji staring at the grave of his father who had been a scapegoat to the Main House, and himself sitting alone in his apartment, vaguely wondering what his parents names were and if they were dead or just didn't want him.

Naruto punched a tree in frustration. He hadn't been able to keep himself under control. He was sure there was a scene going on back at the house, but he didn't want to come back. Besides, if a normal kid had been that angry they would have gone off and sulked, so he would wait until the coast was clear and go back.

* * *

"He's wrong," Inari muttered to himself, "He's completely wrong!"

"Hello, Inari-kun," A soft voice said.

Inari turned around to see the red headed guy with the dark circles, Shinta, standing behind him.

Inari had climbed up on the roof to have some privacy and to think. Also, he wanted to know just when that Taiki guy would come back.

"What do you know?" Inari asked.

"Well, other then the fact that Taiki never had a family, practically everyone in the place where he grew up hated him, and he probably wasn't even missed when he left? Nothing much," Shinta said, "You'll have to talk to Ryou if you want to talk to someone who had a family and lost it, but then again, his father murdered his mother and then tried to kill him, so I guess it's not really that similar."

"That's not true," Inari said, "You're lying."

"Unfortunately no, I'm not," Shinta said, sitting down next to Inari, "Everyone in our little group has a very sad story behind them. In a way, we are throwaway kids. No one wanted us, so we came together."

"Why do you keep fighting?" Inari muttered, "Isn't it easier just to give up?"

"It may be, but none of us want to," Shinta smiled a little, "We all learned that it's better for us all to look to the future and not look back. The past is real, and shouldn't be forgotten, but nor should it be dwelt on to the point of us not being able to move on. I'm sure Kaiza-san would have wanted you to keep smiling, and never to let anything get you down."

Inari didn't know what to say to that.

"Besides, you have your mother and grandfather," Shinta said, "and they love you very, very much."

Shinta stood up and looked up at the moon, "Just think about what I said, and don't be too mad at Taiki. He's trying to help, but sometimes doesn't know how to, other than to hit someone until they see sense."

In a moment Shinta was gone, and Inari was left with his own thoughts.

* * *

**Omake:** Icha Icha Kakashi

Jiraiya giggled a little as he edged towards the bathhouse. The lovely ladies were all there, talking softly, and he had seen some real beauties come in. Perhaps one of them would even have a drink with him later.

"What are you doing?"

Jiraiya nearly jumped ten feet and whipped around to see a fifteen year old boy with his hitai-ate covering one eye glaring at him.

"I'm, uh, looking for something…" Jiraiya said, trying to sound convincing.

"You look to me like you're about to-" The boy started

"Shut up!" Jiraiya hissed. Those women had bat ears.

"What kind of shinobi are you anyways?" the boy asked, "Don't you know that it's against the rules for you to allow such low instincts to effect you."

"Kid, shut up," Jiraiya said as he heard the voices falter a little, "look I'll give you something really interesting."

Jiraiya forced a pristine copy of Icha Icha Dreams, his first bestseller, into the boy's hands, "if you look at this, I swear you'll understand what I'm doing here."

Kakashi curiously opened the book, and a halo of white light was emitted from it, enveloping him. He had the misfortune of reading an entire chapter, and was never the same again.

Kakashi had converted to the Icha Icha series.

* * *

_Yes! Two weeks! This is more of a filler chapter then anything else, but at least I got some fighting in. How was it by the way? I was trying to show off a little of my Naruto's skills, and I hope I did a good job. I also hope the scene with Naruto and Inari was good. I changed it a little from the manga, but I kept the general spirit of it. _

_Isaribi made her début as well. What do you think?_

_Additional notes: _

_It appears that the third Naruto databook is out and not only does Sai dreams of fighting Kakashi, but Itachi apparently likes to walk through sweetshops in his spare time (so Itachi has a sweet tooth…you know…I wouldn't have guessed…)_

_About the third databook: It says in it that Yugito (the Nibi girl) is 29 in Shippuuden. I already have a place for her in this story, and she's going to be younger, and I'm not going to change that. It doesn't really matter all that much, but I just thought you should know that I am deviating a little. _

_The Academy Training: I'm not going to change all that much of what was taught. Danzou's smart, he's not going to start any really radical changes quickly. He implements moves slowly, so that people don't really see what he's doing. After all, let's face it, no matter how behind someone a person is; they don't want to see their children become killers at the age of twelve unless your last name is Uchiha. _

_Translations_

_Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_**_-_**_Shadow Shuriken Clone Technique  
A technique that multiplies a thrown object into many exact replicas of the original - that all do real damage._

_Jibaku Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Exploding Shadow Shuriken Clone Technique_

_A technique that causes any Shuriken Kage Bnushin to explode. (Original Jutsu)_

_Thanks for reading, and please leave me a nice review telling me what you think!_

_See you in a few weeks!_


	11. Part 2: Betrayal

_Author's Corner: Funny thing about this story. It's on more Favorite's lists then Alerts lists. It's not a bad thing, it's just that most of the stuff I write is on more Alerts then Favorites lists. I'm actually rather happy about it. It's kind of neat… Thanks a lot for all your support and I hope that this chapter reaches expectations. We're getting close to the end of my Wave Arc, so I hope this is good._

_Thanks again to Ibby (MegaB) for betaing for me!_

_Disclaimer: Pryotra has no connection to Naruto. She is merely a college student who uses the characters as a way to keep her sanity between studying, sleeping, going to class, eating, and studying some more.._

_**"I have not yet begun to fight!" **_

_**-**__**John Paul Jones**_

* * *

The rest of the week passed uneventfully. Tsunami and Tazuna never brought up the events of the night that Naruto had yelled at Inari. They seemed to think that it was better not to pry into the problems of other people. Naruto had to admit, he was glad he didn't have to explain.

Inari himself was avoiding Naruto. Whenever they would be in the same room by accident, Inari would leave as soon as possible. He didn't eat with the family again while Naruto was there, despite the frequent requests of his mother. Naruto once offered to eat in another room, but Tsunami wouldn't hear of it. She seemed to think that the two of them needed to talk to one another for this argument to end.

After the attack of the Demon Brothers, there were no other unwanted guests who tried to call on the family. Naruto hadn't done anything to the bodies to scare intruders off, since that would be too noticeable, but Gato didn't seem interested in attacking the house. Naruto still patrolled, and after he had managed to explain to his friends, they admitted that it was a good reason and that Naruto wasn't just skipping out of work. The fact was, Naruto was the only one who could do the job, no matter how much the others didn't like it.

Kakashi and his team continued to do their job, and the messenger hawk continued to arrive. Naruto would have loved to have intercepted it, but he had a feeling that Kakashi would know. The man was still asking questions about them every so often, not nosy enough to put Naruto on his guard, but too interested to put him at ease. Shino too continued to be a bit unnerving. Shino didn't seem to have anything against Hakumei, but he would make observations that really made everyone nervous. Yumi and Sasuke officially hated one another. She would have loved nothing more then to parade around Konoha with his head on a stick, and he had admitted to having way too much fun antagonizing her. The only good thing about this was that it kept her from noticing anything about the 'civies'. Naruto had a good hunch that she wouldn't just make statements. Easily the least threat was Kiba. He had no idea what was going on. They would have known too, his arrogance was matched only by his mouth.

The bridge continued at a very slow pace, mostly since the men that had been hired kept on quitting. It was basically only Hakumei working on anything now, and they were inexperienced and their work was slower than it would have been. Tazuna didn't seem upset by how slow they were moving, actually, he seemed rather impressed they had managed to learn so much.

Accidents weren't happening the way they had been at first, which was a good thing since Neji still was supposed to have fully recovered. The only problem was the Tazuna had started waking them up at dawn to get to work, even before him. In return, he promised to feed them for an extra few weeks when the bridge was done.

It was on one morning like that that Naruto woke up and looked out the window. He shook the rest of the guys awake, and then stuck his head into the girls' room and asked if they were up.

It was a little before dawn, and still very dark. Naruto didn't turn on any lights though, or even light a candle. This was a meeting that Naruto would have preferred that no one overhear.

"Neji, Hinata," Naruto said, when they had all assembled, "are they all asleep?"

Both had activated the Byakugen and nodded.

"I don't see any sign of them waking up either," Neji said.

"Yumi's charka signature is…rather strange…but it is her," Hinata said.

"She's ROOT, so she's going to be weird," Sasuke said.

Hinata gave him a troubled look, but didn't say anything else.

"Are you sure about Kakashi and Shino?" Naruto pressed.

"Shino's so obvious, it hurts. Everyone in his family is easy to see since the bugs in his body behave in a certain way when he's asleep. Trust me," Neji said.

"Kakashi-san is about as asleep as a former ANBU can be," Hinata added.

"Ok good," Naruto nodded, "I really don't want this to be overhead. This is exactly one week since Kakashi wounded Zabuza. I think it's time for us to go over the plan…

The others leaned forwards.

Outside, the moon had begun to set and stars were starting to go out. Somewhere, a man who had tried to kill the Mizukage prepared for a battle that deep down; he thought would be his last.

* * *

Kakashi woke up at the usual time with a vague feeling of unease. For a moment he had to recollect his thoughts, but then the date came to him.

This was the day he had hoped would never come.

It was odd how clear the day was. He would have rather it had been dark and cloudy so that the sun wouldn't have to see what was to happen. For Kakashi, it was the last time he would be able to look at the sky directly.

"What would you have done sensei…Rin…Obito?" Kakashi asked the sky. In an instant those faces all flashed back to him, all smiling. Those had been happy days. If only Kakashi had truly understood the privilege he had had, but that didn't matter anymore…

Kakashi sent one final look outside, looking for a sign of the messenger hawk. There was nothing. Not that Kakashi actually had expected to see anything. Missions seldom changed once they had been given to a ninja.

He had briefed everyone on the mission one final time last night. Yumi had seemed pleased with the orders, Kiba was ready and willing to follow any orders given to him, but Shino had been silent other then saying that if that was what the mission was, he would complete it to the best of his abilities. The team probably would go far. They were obedient, ready to improvise when necessary, and completely loyal to Danzou.

Kakashi sat in his room for a while, thinking, but finally, when he felt he had probably pushed the limits of Tazuna's patience, he ambled down the stairs in a laid back way that showed nothing of his real thoughts. Tsunami was serving breakfast again, and it looked like Inari wouldn't be joining them. The Genin were all assembled, looking fresh, young, and completely ignorant of battle or what battle was really like.

"Ohayo, Kakashi-sensei," Shino greeted, bowing a little.

"Ohayo, everyone," Kakashi said lightly.

"You're late," Kiba complained.

"Well, you see, I was going down stairs and then I found out that a baby bird had flown in and had broken its wing, and so…" Kakashi began.

"Lies," Kiba accused.

"Hn," Yumi commented,

Shino said nothing.

"Well, this is the first time we've all been able to watch the client together," Kakashi said happily.

"Any maybe we'll get to see some action!" Kiba said hopefully.

"I hope not," Shino said, offering his actual opinion for a change, "I don't think we're prepared to face a Jonin level opponent."

"Well, chances are that Zabuza really was dead, and even if he isn't, I'll be the one to fight him like last time," Kakashi said, "You three stay back and protect Tazuna-san."

"Well, it's about time for us to meet, Taiki and the others at the bridge," Tazuna told them, taking a swig of sake. He seemed to have started drinking rather early, Kakashi noted. It probably had something to do with nerves, "We'd better get started."

"Come back soon," Tsunami said with a smile to her father.

"Say goodbye to Inari for me," Tazuna had never requested that before.

Tsunami's eyes widened just for a moment, but her smile never faltered, "I will. We'll see you tonight. I'm making your favorite."

"I'm looking forward to it," Tazuna said, taking another swig of sake.

"We're probably not going to be coming back tonight," Kakashi told them both, "since the bridge will be completed today, there's no reason for us to hang around anymore. Thank you for your hospitality."

"No, thank you for taking such good care of my father," Tsunami bowed a little, "You've restored my faith in Konoha."

Kiba was about to open his mouth, but Shino stepped hard on his foot, making him turn and glare at him, but forget what he was about to say.

Kakashi led the way to the door, opened it, and stepped outside. It really was a beautiful day. The sky was clear blue, the birds were singing, and it felt like nothing wrong could ever happen on such a perfect day. Kiba ran a little ahead of everyone else, Akamaru on his head, Yumi brought up the rear, looking bored, and Shino walked beside Kakashi without any expression on his face.

"If Zabuza is dead what will happen?" Shino asked softly.

"The mission will proceed as planned," Kakashi told him.

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei," Shino replied in a neutral voice.

The two continued walking, listening to Tazuna tell Kiba about some of the more interesting things about Wave's past. Kiba actually seemed interested and was sometimes asking questions.

Yumi walked in silence, her dark eyes watching every move that Kakashi made. So far, he had behaved as a proper sensei despite his somewhat terminal lateness and his apathetic attitude. Perhaps her being placed on his team had been an over reaction after all. Then again, it was always difficult to tell. They had thought Itachi was loyal once, and he had betrayed Konoha. How could they trust Kakashi so easily? Yumi would wait and see. She was patient.

Kakashi saw the form of the bridge coming. There didn't seem to be anything different about it, but the second that he had walked into it, he knew that there was something wrong.

"Where are the civies?" Kiba asked, looking around, "I…smell blood…"

Mist began to form around them and Kakashi sensed the presence of Zabuza in front of them.

"That's because I killed the kids working on the bridge," a cold voice said through the mist.

"So, I was right, you didn't die," Kakashi said as he began to distinguish the form of the Missing-Nin.

He was wearing the same armor he had seen him in last, and most of his face was still covered. The monstrous sword that he wielded was in his hands, and he looked like he hadn't ever been wounded. Behind him, there was a figure of someone standing, but Kakashi couldn't quiet distinguish who it was.

Kakashi pulled up his hitai-ate, revealing Obito's present.

"You're lucky," Kakashi said, "You're the first of my opponents to ever see this twice, but you won't see it a third time."

"Kakashi, you know you're no match for me," Zabuza drawled, "Just hand over the old man, I'll go about my business."

"…I'll do better," Kakashi said. "If you set me up with an appointment to see your boss…I'll help you."

Tazuna, who had been behind the three Genin, took a step back, as they all turned to him, their eyes dead.

"Well, this is a turn of events I hadn't expected…" Zabuza said, from what Kakashi could see, he was smirking, "I'll let you do the honors."

Tazuna took another frightened step back. It looked like he wasn't going to be home for dinner after all. For a moment the faces of Tsunami and Inari flashed through his mind. He closed his eyes and waited. There was a rushing sound, and Tazuna braced himself.

Kakashi took a step forward, but was stopped by a kunai thrown at his feet, and the wall of ice that surrounded Tazuna.

"That's as far as you go,"

* * *

Inari woke up late, after the ninja had left for the bridge. He hadn't wanted to talk to them all that much, and had been purposely sleeping in since they had come.

He went downstairs to see his mother eating her breakfast, looking thoughtful and a little worried.

"Are they all gone?" Inari asked.

"Yes, dear," his mother said, not looking up, "Your grandfather should be home by dinner."

"Are those ninja and those workers coming back?" Inari asked. He really didn't want to see Taiki ever again.

"The workers will be back for a few more meals, but the ninja shouldn't be coming back," his mother said, looking a little relieved, "Kakashi-san was nice enough, but those children put me on edge. There was something unnatural about them, particularly the girl, Yumi-chan."

Inari had to agree, the way that girl looked at people was kind of creepy. Even that Emi girl, who was probably the most violent person he'd ever met, acted like a normal twelve-year-old.

"Why don't you go out and play, Inari," Tsunami said, "There's nothing to do here, and you haven't been out in quite while."

Inari would have liked to object, but the worry that was on his mother's face made him stop. She really looked like she was thinking about something.

Inari nodded mutely and ate his breakfast in silence.

As he was cleaning his bowl, he thought he heard the sound of footsteps. That was strange, a part of him thought, they seldom had any visitors.

The rest of Inari's thoughts were interrupted by someone slamming themselves against the front door, trying to break it down.

"Inari, get out!" his mother yelled, shoving him towards a the window over the kitchen sink, which over looked the garden and had about five feet between it and the ground.

"But what about you?" he asked, as he heard the door giving way under the weight.

"Don't worry about me," there was another shove, the feeling of being picked up, and Inari had fallen unto the ground in a heap, "Find your grandfather, you'll be fine!"

Inari crouched outside the window and heard the door give way. There was a crash and then loud, pounding footsteps. They halted in the kitchen, and the silence that came with that seemed to last for a good fifteen minutes.

"Put the knife down, sweetie," one gruff, leering voice said, "It's not going to help you all that much. We'll just force it from you."

"Stay away from me and my family," Tsunami's voice was deadly cold.

"Just where is your brat anyways?" a second, drawling voice asked.

"You won't find him," Tsunami's voice had a hint of triumph in it, "He's gone."

"Well, that's too bad," the first voice was triumphant, "Well, I guess we'll just have to focus on you, right?"

"Yep," the second said, "You're pretty hot too. I love our job!"

Inari's mind was racing. For a moment he saw his dad dieing again, and part of his mind told him to run. The weak didn't have any way to fight against the strong. He had learned that already. Inari braced himself for a dash when he heard the words of Taiki and Shinta again.

_Your mom and grandpa are fighting just to keep you alive and give you a future._

_I'm sure Kaiza-san would have wanted you to keep smiling, and never to let anything get you down_

_Besides, you have your mother and grandfather, and they love you very, very much._

He remembered that his father had smiled at him before he had died. Inari had been so angry, not at Gato, but at his dad. Maybe Taiki was right; maybe he had been being selfishly angry that his dad had thought about something else instead of what he, Inari, wanted.

Maybe there really was such a thing as a hero in the world…

Inari stood up and ran around to the front door, grabbing the first thing that came into his hands, a dirty looking mop.

He stepped over the remains of the door, and began to walk quietly across the hall. This was the most important thing that he was doing now. If he could sneak up on them, then Inari might be able to beat both of them before they knew what was happening. He edged up to the kitchen door and peeked around the corner.

His mother was standing with her back to the sink, knife in hand, glaring at the two men with a kind of desperate fury that made Inari wonder just how far she would go to buy him time to run away.

"I swear if you take another step, I'll kill one of you," she hissed.

"Now, honey," the one closest to her, a large, beefy looking man, said consolingly, "this can be easy, or this can be hard. It's your choice, but either way, we're going to win."

"Just put the knife down," the second one, a short yet stocky man, agreed, "It won't hurt, promise."

Tsunami's eyes were like two pieces of steel and she raised her hands with the knife in them.

"Have it your way…" the first one said, taking a step towards her.

Inari swung the mop with all his might at the second man's head. Causing a loud crack that sounded through what felt like the whole house and the second man to fall back a little bit, rubbing the sore spot where the mop had hit. The other whirled around to see what had happened. His eyes fell on Inari standing behind the man.

"Well, well, well," he said with a grin, "It looks like we don't have to do any work after all."

"You stay away from my mother!" Inari yelled, "If you don't-"

"You'll what, gaki?" The second man stood up, looking at him darkly, "You'll hit me again with that mop? After all, it worked so well last time…"

"Just give up," the first one coaxed, "It'll be over soon, and I'll tell you what, I'll make it painless! What more can you ask for? You're weak, and the strong pray off the weak."

"Inari, run!" Tsunami screamed.

"…NO!" Inari yelled, "I'm not going to run away, I'm going to be a hero like my dad! You're not going to win, 'cause even if you beat me up, I'll still fight you!"

Inari charged forwards, aiming a punch that he already knew would be blocked, hoping that somehow, something would happen that would prove that his father was right.

Inari's fist connected, sending a wave of pain through him, he hadn't balled his fist right, but there was another sound of a fist connecting with flesh.

"Lesson one for being a cliché hero: Always be a little late, it adds to the drama!" a voice that Inari recognized as Taiki said.

"What-" the first guy said, looking at his partner who was one the ground, clutching his gut.

He looked up to see the blonde, whisker faced boy grinning at him in a slightly feral way. He was in a fighter's crouch, and Inari suddenly had the feeling that Taiki had seen his fair share of fights.

"I've been waiting for Gato to send more goons," Taiki said, "ever since the Demon Brothers showed up, but I thought he would send someone…tougher…"

"You got the jump on Shin, teme, but not me!" the first man was suddenly holding a knife and rushed at Taiki.

Inari felt like he was watching in slow motion as the man ran towards Taiki, knife flashing. It seemed like Taiki took forever as he seemed to just side step the knife and take another step until he was behind him. Then Taiki's hands were at the man's neck, touching a point at it. The man's eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed.

Inari stared at the figure of the man in shocked silence for a moment, and then the first thing that came to his head popped out of his mouth.

"You killed him,"

Taiki leaned over and grabbed the man's wrist.

"Nope, he's just out cold," he said in an unconcerned way, "I didn't think I'd gotten the point that would kill him, but sometimes I forget which is which. Could you two help me tie him and his friend up, they can tell you what's up."

As if nothing out of the ordinary was happening and this was just another of his odd jobs, Taiki calmly tied both men up and dragged them into the center of the room. Inari helped him as best he could with trembling hands and an unsteady step.

"…Thank you, Taiki," Tsunami said, "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been there…"

Taiki looked a little embarrassed and scratched the back of his head with one hand.

"Hey, that's what you paid us to do right? Keep all of you safe?"

"Actually, you only had to keep my father safe…" Tsunami reminded him with a small smile.

"Well, we try to keep the client, and everyone connected with them safe too. Standard Hakumei practice…" Taiki laughed a little.

"It's still going above and beyond your duty, and I'm very grateful," Tsunami said, laughing a little.

"Mom, what's going on?" Inari was really getting confused, "What's Hakumei?"

"So you're the one who took out the Demon Brothers and put all those traps around the house," the second man, who was still conscious, accused.

"I'm with the group that did that, yeah," Taiki said with a smug look, "What's it to ya?"

"That's impossible!" the man said, angrily, "We saw all nine of you leave the house."

"Yep, you did," Taiki agreed.

"Zabuza should have killed you!" he continued.

"So, I guess I'm a really solid ghost," Taiki said with a shrug.

"Zabuza!" Panic crossed Tsunami's face, "He's at the bridge. Father!"

"Your dad's going to be fine," Taiki said in a coaxing voice.

Inari remembered the ninja talking about Zabuza. From what he had heard, he had been under Gato's orders, and very dangerous. That guy with the mask, Kakashi had said that he might be dead, but obviously he was still very much alive.

"But, Grandpa has those ninja with him doesn't he?" Inari asked, "Aren't they supposed to be tough?"

"I don't know…" Tsunami was looking more and more upset and frightened.

"Inari," Taiki's voice had changed. It wasn't amused or laid back or annoyed or any of the other ways he had heard it before. It was serious and almost mature, "You need to get help and take care of your mom."

"W-what about you?" Inari asked.

"I can't stick around here. Besides…" Taiki didn't say anything more, but Inari had a feeling that whatever it was, it was something important.

"You're going to fight him aren't you?" Inari asked, "Zabuza…"

"Yep," Taiki said with a small grin.

"Why?" Inari asked.

"'Cause I'm going to protect everyone I can," Taiki said, dead serious, "and if I back down now, what's going to happen later? I'll never be a hero, but I'm going to be just as good as one. I made a promise a long time ago to someone, and I'm not going to go back on my word…I guess you could call that…my nindo…"

Inari had a moment to interpret those words before Taiki had run off, leaving him and his mother with two tied up men. For a second, Inari thought that he heard something going 'pop' outside, but shook it off. His ears were probably the only things popping. Now, he had to do something.

Inari looked at his mop and looked around the kitchen until he found a bucket. It was full of water, but he dumped it out the window and picked it up so that it looked like a shield. He was ready for battle.

It was time for Inari to act the way his father would have wanted.

* * *

Kakashi stared at the figures that stood on the metal beams of the bridge about them. There were nine people standing there, all of them were ninja, and they looked like they were some sort of team of rogue nin.

They were all in a uniform, and all of them wore masks. The uniform was a simple black shirt and pants, along with the toeless, combat sandals that were the traditional footwear for ninja and fingerless gloves. Any skin was hidden by armored bandages, but the most distinguishing thing about the uniform was the haori that each of them was wearing. They were white with a pattern of blue flames the seemed to be burning the bottom edges up. Kakashi knew that it had been designed to resemble the Yondaime's. The other most distinguishing trait was the mask that each of them wore. They were all plain and white, with slitted eyeholes, much like a Hunter nin's, and on the forehead of each mask was a different kanji: Shippuu, Arashi, Nisshoku, Gesshoku, Hara, Rasen, Shin'en, Haka, and Sabaku. They were all looking at the group of ninja, and Kakashi, with the Sharingan could see one thing about his people.

They were no pushovers.

"Who are those freaks?" Kiba asked with a sneer, "They look kinda weak don't they?"

"Stand down, Kiba," Kakashi ordered, "Those are true ninja," he looked at the group, "What do you want?"

"We have been hired to protect Tazuna-san from all threats," the one with the mark Gesshoku said, from the sound of it, it was a woman.

"Please leave, and there will be no trouble," the one marked Shin'en said.

"Unfortunately, that's impossible," Kakashi said.

"So, let's get this started," Zabuza said with a bit of impatience, "My kubikiri hocho hasn't had much blood lately anyways, and you guys look good enough to entertain me for a while."

The one marked Shippuu looked around at the other figures.

"Shin'en, you keep the Genin busy, Rasen, Gesshoku, Nisshoku, protect Tazuna-san, your attacks will damage the bridge if you're not careful. Remember that if someone attempts to harm Tazuna-san. Arashi, Haka, keep Momochi Zabuza busy. Hara, make sure that assistant is dealt with. Sabaku and I will fight Hatake Kakashi."

"Hai!" eight voices responded and all figures jumped away from where they were.

Shin'en appeared in front of the Genin for a split second, his heads already making a series of patterns.

"Get him!" Kiba yelled, charging forwards.

"Kokuangyo no Jutsu," Shin'en said calmly.

Kiba gasped as a cloud of total darkness washed over him. He took a deep breath, but somehow, even his sense of smell was being blocked off. Akamaru whined a little.

"_I can't smell anything,_" he said, sounding very upset.

"Shino!" Kiba called out, "Yumi,"

"I'm here," Shino's voice said a little to Kiba's left, "He's trapped me in the genjutsu as well. Yumi, can you hear us?"

"Yes," Yumi's calm voice cut through the darkness to Kiba's right, "I'm trying to break it, but it's surprisingly powerful."

"And-" Kiba said.

The rest of his sentence was stopped by the feeling of something slimy wrapping around his body.

"What's that!" he yelled.

"I don't know," Yumi's voice responded, "but it's got me too."

"You're all very lucky that I'm not going to kill you," a pleasant voice said, through the darkness, "You're just going to sit there and wait for the battle to end."

Yumi's light laughter cut through the darkness and there was a sound of something snapping.

"Even if I can't see, I can still fight you," she said calmly.

* * *

Sasuke landed in front of Zabuza and felt Kimimaro land behind him. From what Sasuke could see of the Missing Nin's face, he looked a little disappointed.

"I was hoping to fight with all of you," he admitted, "those kids were just too easy to kill."

Sasuke smirked under his mask. It was amazing just what Sakura's genjutsu was able to do. She really had talent when she wanted to use it, which wasn't all that often. Even now, Sakura had used a basic one that made them all appear a little taller and their voices sound a little different. They didn't really want to be recognized.

"Sorry, but you're just going to have to deal with us," Sasuke said with a smirk, "I've always wondered how I'd do against an opponent of your famed power, and now I get to see."

"You mean we get to see," Kimimaro said, his voice unreadable.

"Hmph," Sasuke could tell Zabuza was smirking, "It looks like I'll be able to have some fun after all. You kids just might be cut out to be ninja…if you live."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Sasuke said.

"You're shivering…" Zabuza said, satisfaction in his voice.

"Yes…I am…with excitement!" Sasuke dashed forwards.

Finally, he was in a true fight against a real opponent. It was time to see just how far he had come from the child who had barely been able to light a candle with his attacks.

* * *

Isaribi knew that Zabuza would kill those people who had interfered with his work. It wasn't that she enjoyed the thought; it was simply that Zabuza was not one to allow something like some local group of hero wannabes to cause him any real trouble. He had had no problem with slaughtering the kids who had been on the bridge. Deep down, Isaribi felt sympathy for them all, particularly Haku. They had never even known what hit them, and they had simply been in the wrong place at the right time.

There was a possibility that they were alive, but not too good of one.

A figure stepped out of the mist, looking at her. It was one of the attackers, and the kanji on his forehead read Hara.

"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to help Zabuza this time," the voice of the figure was gentle and somehow familiar, but for the life of her, Isaribi couldn't place it.

"There's nothing you can do to stop me," Isaribi said calmly, "I am not as defenseless as I appear."

"Zabuza would only travel with someone who was powerful," the man agreed, "but still, I can't let you. Arashi and Haka are depending on me."

"Then try," Isaribi challenged.

She charged forwards. Her speed was unmatched by any of the opponents that she had faced, and once she was within striking range, it would be too late for the man. She would make both of them fall into the water and drown him. She sent a kick, waiting for the feeling of connection, but none came, the man was simply and suddenly gone.

She sensed his presence behind her and attempted a round house kick. She was shocked to see him disappear right in front of her eyes. Just as suddenly, he was a few feet in front of her with his hands forming one seal.

"Hijutsu: Makyou Hyoushou," she heard him say.

The effect was almost instantaneous. Isaribi was surrounded by what looked like mirrors of solid ice that were floating slightly above the ground. Slowly, she reached out one hand and touched one. It was solid and so cold it almost burned. Isaribi dashed forwards, but something shoved her back into the center of the dome of mirrors.

"You can't get out," the man's voice said as he appeared in all of the mirrors, "not until I let you out. I don't want to hurt you, but if you insist on fighting, I will…"

Isaribi formed the pattern of hand signs that Zabuza had taught her to make sure that she never completely had to rely on her little 'ability'"

"Suiton: Mizu Bakudan," she said.

A ball of water formed itself from the air inside the dome of mirrors and began to steam as bubbles started to come from the bottom up. The ball of boiling water launched itself at one of the mirrors and hit it directly. The second that the water touched the mirrors, it froze.

"How…" Isaribi asked, "That attack should have melted it."

"My kekkei genkai creates ice," the man said, "All you did was give me water that I turned into ice to strengthen the mirror. Even if you had used a Katon jutsu, the effect would have been the same. You can't escape."

"What do you want?" Isaribi asked, "If you want to kill me, just do it!"

"But I don't," Hara said, shaking his head, "That's the last thing I want to do. Shippuu ordered that I keep you from helping Zabuza, and that's what I've done."

The masked man held up one hand, in it there were five senbon.

"Please don't try to get out; I don't want to have to attack you,"

* * *

Tazuna found himself staring at the backs of three people, two of them were obviously women. They were all in defensive positions and were watching the battles that were beginning carefully.

"I wish that we had been able to fight," one of the girls sighed.

"Shippuu had a good point though," the only male in the group said, "Our attacks will probably damage the bridge."

"That doesn't make it easier," the other complained.

"True, but I guess we can't blame him," the first girl admitted.

"But we can hope that someone tries to attack Tazuna-san," the man said, "I've been wanting to see how well I did against a Jonin too…"

"That probably makes all of us, but someone must protect the client, and with all of those opponents, it makes sense to have the greatest number of people protecting the client," the second girl said.

"You're too nice to Shippuu, Gesshoku," the boy grumbled.

Tazuna wasn't sure whether to be reassured by their confidence or worried that they might just decide to leave their posts and join the battle. They sure looked like they were thinking of that possibility, and he wasn't sure if he could trust them, after all, one group had already betrayed him, what was so different about this one.

He hoped that the battle would be short. After all, with the shifting alliances and the sudden appearances, he may find himself in a very bad position if they all decided to join Gato's payroll.

* * *

Kakashi looked at the figure who had appeared in front of him. The other ones, including Sabaku, who was supposed to be fighting him, were gone.

"Is it too much to ask to know who I'm fighting?" Kakashi asked, "You apparently know me, so it's only right."

"I am Shippuu, leader of Hakumei," the figure said.

"Hakumei?"

That was strange, a group this well organized should have been known about in Konoha. They knew about most of the teams of mercenaries, even those who weren't all that powerful, and this group didn't give that impression. Actually, when he looked at this group, only one other team of ninja came to mind: Akatsuki, a band of missing nin and criminals. They were secretive, and information about them was difficult to find. It was only with the help of the toad sannin, Jiraiya, that they even knew that such an organization even existed at all.

Now, there was a new group that he knew nothing about, with members of an unknown number and an unknown level of skill. They were confident though, and probably just as powerful as he assumed them to be. They were smart too; none of them actually fighting a Jonin one on one. Shin'en appeared to have already made his team unable to fight, and whatever help Zabuza had had, was probably just as unable. They had already taken out any back up, and were preparing to attack.

"I see that's the only answer that you're going to give me right now," Kakashi sighed, "well, I guess I'll find out more about you as we fight."

Shippuu seemed to have prepared himself, but he wasn't attacking, and the Sharingan didn't foresee an attack in the near future.

He was waiting for Kakashi to attack.

Kakashi wasn't quite sure if he liked that confidence. The one who attacked first had the greatest advantage, but something about the way he was waiting made Kakashi think that Shippuu was planning something.

Too bad there wasn't anything he could do but jump into that trap. Even if he tried to go after Tazuna, Shippuu would come after him, and he still had those three to worry about. He had no backup in this.

"You've used the tactic of divide and conquer well, I have to admit that," Kakashi said.

"I'm flattered that you think so," Shippuu replied.

"I'm not going to hold back on you," Kakashi said, "I respect you too much."

He disappeared and reappeared aiming a kick at Shippuu from the left side. Shippuu barely had time to block as the kick made him fall back a few feet. Shippuu didn't wait for another attack. His hands were together in the single seal he needed.

"Kage Bunshin no Justu," he said.

Ten Bunshin appeared and surrounded Kakashi, who didn't have time to wonder just how it was that this person had summoned ten clones and was still standing. All of them attacked in unison, throwing a succession of kunai as well as a succession of kicks, punches, and other assorted attacks that Kakashi couldn't place the style of.

This was really getting to dangerous for him to play around. The Sharingan allowed him to see what Shippuu was going to do, but there were so many of them that it was hard to keep track of all of them. When he dispelled one, another took its place, and the attacks gave him little time to form the seals he needed to win. It seemed that was Shippuu's strategy. Shippuu seemed to know that he couldn't actually beat Kakashi, and that didn't seem to even be what he was after anyway. From what Kakashi could see, Shippuu was buying time for something.

There was one second between the dispelling of one clone and the formation of another that Kakashi was able to take advantage of. He jumped backwards and as he moved, made a series of signs.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu," he said.

One of the Shippuus was not engaging in battle, and while the Sharingan was not about to tell a Kage Bunshin from the original, Kakashi was smart enough to know that if he could make ten of himself to fight an enemy, he would stay out of battle, and that was the Shippuu that he was going to aim for.

From the water under the bridge, a large, swirling pillar of water shot up, aiming straight for the Shippuu who was outside the battle and engulfing him. For a second, the clones seemed to stop, but then he heard it.

There was a poofing sound, and the Shippuu went up in a cloud of smoke.

"Wrong one!" ten voices called out, and the attacks began anew.

Where was the real Shippuu?

He was blocking a long succession of kicks when he felt himself step into something soft. Managing to force Shippuu back for a moment, for a split second he looked down to make sure that he hadn't stepped in some kind of Doton jutsu that was meant to slow him down.

…Sand?

His eyes scanned the area to see that there was sand that had somehow gotten into a circle around where he and Shippuu were fighting.

"NOW!" Shippuu yelled.

Sabaku, who had disappeared throughout the entire battle, seemed to materialize out of the sand. One hand was raised and before Kakashi could really understand what was happening, everything became pitch black. Kakashi took out a small stick in his vest and cracked it. It lit up and cast a faint light around him. In the greenish glow that the light stick emitted Kakashi could see that he was in a dome that looked like it was made entirely of sand that was about twenty feet in diameter and at least twenty feet high. Shippuu was standing at the opposite end of the dome.

"Well, you've sure gone through a lot of work to make sure that we're not going to be seen," Kakashi said.

Shippuu said nothing.

"Why don't you take off your mask Taiki, or should I say, Naruto-kun?"

* * *

**Omake: **The Experiment

A ten year old Sasuke poured himself a second bowl of Ninja Puffs after Tsunade had left with Hinata, Haku and Sakura. Naruto leaned over curiously.

"I thought you didn't like that," he said, "What's with the extra bowl."

"I want to see something," Sasuke said, pouring soy milk onto it and putting it a little out of the way, where Tsunade, who had a fear of looking too hard at anything in Jiraiya's house, wouldn't look.

"What's that?" Sai asked, as Gaara leaned in with Kimimaro.

"I'm going to find out what happens if it's left out for a really long time," Sasuke said.

"That sounds stupid," Neji cut in, "we all know that it turns into Ninja Puke."

"But what happens after…" Naruto asked, "This sounds like fun!"

The next morning, it was Ninja Puke, which wasn't all that unexpected given Sasuke's experience with it before. Every one left it alone, even the girls were slightly curious to see just how it was going to turn out.

The next morning, the Ninja Puke had turned into Ninja Mush. Naruto poked at it with a chopstick and almost died of terror when the Mush seemed to engulf it.

"It's freaky!" he said to the others, "Let's just kill it."

"No," Hinata said, "It's interesting…don't you want to know what it turns into in a week?"

"Not really,"

"Oh, come on," Sakura said, rolling her eyes.

As the week progressed, the Ninja Puffs turned into what can commonly be called a science experiment. It became green and by the time the week was out, there was a large flower growing out of the center. As Sasuke and Naruto watched one morning, the flower opened and five Ninja Puffs fell out onto the green moss that had once been soy milk.

Naruto blinked and Sasuke sort of twitched.

"I guess they meant it when they said it was all natural…" Naruto said.

* * *

_I really liked this chapter. I haven't read anything like this before, so I thought that it might be really interesting. I hope you guys agree with me. The fight scenes were a little rough for me to do, but I hope that they were good. Next chapter's going to be so hard for me…it's almost all fighting…_

_Hayaya… (if you know what anime this is from, kudos to you. My one hint, it's an older anime)_

_Additional Notes:_

_Hakumei's Uniform: How does it sound? I made it up. If you're interested in seeing a picture, go to my profile page. I drew a picture of it as modeled by Hinata._

_Fight scenes: I try to keep myself realistic. I don't really what a godlike Naruto running around, because seriously, there's no fun in that. He just crushes his enemies without blinking. I really respect Kakashi, and I was hoping that I did him right._

_Haori: a sleeveless jacket that is meant to be worn over traditional Japanese clothing and reaches the knees. It's also impossible to close since there's no buttons, hooks, or zippers. (Thanks 2stupid)  
_

_Translations:_

_Kokuangyo no Jutsu (Bringer of Darkness Technique)_

_A jutsu that creates an area of complete darkness around the victim or victims that enables the user to attack without being seen._

_Hijutsu: Makyou Hyoushou (Secret Technique:__Demonic Ice Mirrors)_

_Creates a prison of mirrors made from ice around an opponent. The mirrors allow the user to transport between them at high speeds or reflect themselves into all the mirrors. It is nearly impossible to see the user's movement between mirrors, so there is no danger of being hit. The speed of the user also makes it near impossible to dodge the attacks._

_Suiton: Mizu Bakudan (Water Element: Water Bomb)_

_Creates a ball of boiling water that is thrown at an opponent. (Original Jutsu)_

_Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Element: Explosion)_

_Sends a large spinning pillar of water towards the opponent. Can only be performed when near a moderately large water source, and uses a large amount of chakra._

_Thank you for reading, and I hope you review and tell me what you think! All comments and questions are welcome; I'll even answer them as long as I'm not giving away something I think is important…_

_See you in a few weeks!_


	12. Part 2: The Battle for the Bridge

_Author's Corner: No, I'm not dead. As I said, I did write back…_

_College is such a pain. My updates are going to be a little on the sporadic side, but I will update, and I will try to update every three weeks._

_Anyways…_

_A lot of people have asked me to put something about the names of the characters up since it's fairly hard to memorize nine names let alone eighteen, so here's a list of everyone and their alias. _

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_I hope that helps a little bit._

_Thanks to Ibby (MegaB) for betaing!_

_Disclaimer: Pryotra does not own Naruto. She doesn't even own any DVDs or manga. She reads and watches on the internet. _

_**"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." **_

_**-**__**Sir Winston Churchill**_

_**

* * *

**_

Sasuke had already learned the one major advantage that Swordsmen had: they had a longer reach then he did, and he had to constantly be on the defensive.

Zabuza was faster with that sword then Sasuke had anticipated judging on the size and probable weight of it. His movements were both hard to read and unexpected, and Sasuke was forced to stay back and use his longer range attacks. The problem with them was they were easy to read and anticipate where they were going. Zabuza had no trouble dodging. Kimimaro was having similar problems. He used his Teshi Sendan as much as he could while dodging attacks, he was unable to use most of his truly powerful attacks.

Zabuza actually seemed to be enjoying himself. From what Sasuke could see from the man's face, he was grinning. Sasuke had the feeling that he was playing with them a little. For one thing, he hadn't used any real jutsu yet…

Sasuke jumped up and formed an attack.

"Katon: Housenka!" He called.

A large amount of small fireballs shot out of where Sasuke's mouth was, even though it was covered by a mask.

"Suiton: Suijinheki," Zabuza said as a large barrier of water rose up in a circle around him.

The fireballs hit the shield and went out, but the kunai that had been hidden in them continued. Zabuza lifted his sword to deflect the barrage of kunai. He didn't notice Kimimaro right behind him.

"Tsubaki no Mai!" Kimimaro yelled, a sword made entirely out of bone in his hands.

Kimimaro struck out, only to meet the steel of Zabuza's sword, flipped back and landed on his feet out of range and ready to continue.

"You kids aren't half bad…" Zabuza admitted, "I'm starting to enjoy myself…"

Sasuke didn't say a thing, he just dashed forwards in a zigzag pattern. He had to get closer to him if any attack he made was going to be worth anything. So far all of their attacks were useless, and Zabuza was just going to block every attack that they made.

The sword came to his left, and Sasuke jumped backwards to avoid it. However, before he was completely out of harm's way, the sword and whipped around and grazed his arm.

How was he going to get closer to him without getting killed? His movements were just too fast.

"You kids just keep going at this rate," Zabuza continued, "The longer you keep me entertained, the longer your friends stay alive, since once I'm done with you; I'm going for the old man…"

That meant that he would kill everyone guarding him.

This was the first time that Sasuke had really been in a serious fight. All the others had been with Jiraiya, Tsunade or Shizune, none of whom would kill him, or mercenaries who he was eons ahead of. He had never really been in a situation where a mistake that he made would leave him dead, and possibly everyone else. Sasuke was the unofficial second in command of Hakumei, and, deep down, he considered himself probably one of the most powerful of the group. What if the others didn't fare any better then he was?

What was he thinking? Sasuke wouldn't allow anyone to hurt the others. Not if he had anything in his power.

'_Give me strength_…' Sasuke prayed, '_I have to get stronger. I refuse to lose anyone that I have gained. I don't care if I die here and now just let me have the power to help them_.'

Sasuke would not see them die after everything that had happened. Hakumei had given him something that only Itachi had given him before. They had laughed with him, trained with him, fought with him, grown up with him. They were more then some ninja team, they were all but family, and the only family that Sasuke now acknowledged other than Itachi.

He would never allow anyone to hurt them.

Zabuza seemed to shift a little, and then he was right in front of Sasuke. The sword was about to come down to his left, and if he tried to dodge right, it would turn out to be a feint. Sasuke jumped backwards and pivoted off the wall to the left. Zabuza was about to swing from below, and Sasuke turned his body enough so that when the attack hit, it missed.

That was when Sasuke noticed what was happened.

_He could see him_.

He could see everything that Zabuza was about to do, and could see how he was doing it. Sasuke could see the chakra around him and what it was doing. Everything was so clear!

Sharingan!

"I've done it…" Sasuke muttered, elated, "I've really done it…"

Sasuke landed on his feet, Kimimaro appeared next to him.

"Did you activate it?" he asked.

"Yes," Sasuke said, not able to say anything more.

"We're not going to lose now," Kimimaro said. Sasuke could hear the satisfaction in his tone.

They were going to throw a party after this, and it was going to be bigger then anything else they had ever thrown, including their 'graduation' party.

* * *

"How did you know?" Naruto asked, slowly removing his mask, he might as well.

"I've known since the moment I saw you," Kakashi smiled, "of course, even if I hadn't, the Sharingan can see through that wonderful genjutsu you have up. You really did a good job, especially making so that the actual numbers seem a little blurry so that no one will notice that there are nine of you."

"That's weird, I don't remember seeing you before," Naruto said, ignoring the compliment.

"Well, that makes sense," Kakashi said, nodding "You were only seven at the time, and you're sixth sense wasn't what I think it is now. When I had free time, I would keep an eye on you, but it wasn't really necessary."

Naruto didn't know what to say to that. It was just his luck to have the one team led by someone who'd recognize him.

"So, why didn't you expose me from the start?" Naruto asked, he was actually rather curious.

"Well, I didn't really have a reason to," Kakashi said, smiling, "You weren't causing any trouble. Then I had my orders sent to me, and I didn't much want to involve you. I could tell that you were fully trained ninja from the start, and I guess that you had been hired to protect Tazuna, but I decided that I would deal with you on my own. What Danzou-sama doesn't know won't help him."

"Well, I'm the only former Konoha-" Naruto began.

"Don't lie, Naruto-kun, you're not as good at it as I am at seeing through it. Your friends are mostly the kids who were kidnapped alongside you, other then a few others you've picked up. You all have done an excellent job of hiding, I really wouldn't have known if I hadn't recognized you, or rather your whiskers."

Now that made sense. Blast it, that was the one thing that Naruto couldn't seem able to hide no matter how much he tried to put a genjutsu on it. He could make himself look like another person without a problem; it was just hiding it on him…

"Well, I'm going to guess that you didn't go through all of this work just to fight me one on one without interference…" Kakashi trailed off.

Naruto tilted his head a little and decided to that Kakashi had proven himself as somewhat trustworthy by not exposing them, even if they had turned on Tazuna. Naruto had learned from Jiraiya not to get offended by most of the two faced tactics of Konoha nin right now. The ones to be angry with were Danzou and his council, not the ninja. They followed orders, and if they disobeyed, the team would attack him and continue the mission. Besides, if what Jiraiya had said was true, Kakashi was involved in something that couldn't really be considered something Danzou would approve of, he had to make sure he seemed completely loyal. Naruto wondered just how this betrayal really sat with him.

"My sensei wants me to give you something," Naruto said in a guarded tone, "He told me to deliver it personally because you were part of a certain…underground group…"

Kakashi's eye widened a little. That obviously wasn't the answer that he was expecting.

Naruto took out the scroll that Jiraiya had given him to give to Kakashi and slowly walked forwards. Kakashi walked to meet him and Naruto handed him the scroll. Kakashi opened it immediately and began to read. After reading it once, and again, Kakashi looked at Naruto.

"Thank you very much," he said, "Tell Jiraiya-sama that everything is going according to plan. We will be ready to receive him at the Chuunin Exams."

"I'll relay the message," Naruto said, wondering just what was going to happen during the Chuunin Exams. Blast, he should have intercepted the letter. Of course Kakashi wasn't going to tell him.

Kakashi was studying him again. It wasn't the cold stare that the Konoha villagers had had when they looked at him; it was more like he was surprised by something. Naruto was getting a little tired of it.

"You know who I am. I really don't care if you don't like me; I know that I probably am the living reminder of everyone you cared about that Kyuubi killed, but stop staring at me like that."

Kakashi shook his head.

"I'm not thinking about that, although for a long time, I wasn't quite sure what I thought of you. You really look a tremendous amount like my sensei. You're a lot alike too when you're acting serious, when you're joking with your friends, you're more like your mother."

Naruto wasn't really expecting that.

"Well, now that that's settled, why don't you get your friend to let down his sand dome…" Kakashi trailed off.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "We're officially on a mission, Kakashi-san, just because I went through all of this to give you that without your students, two of which I'm very suspicious of, finding something out. I still have to protect the old drunk."

"I was hoping you'd forgotten," Kakashi admitted.

* * *

Isaribi collapsed to the ground. The senbon were being purposefully thrown into places that didn't hurt, but caused her muscles to spasm and made her unable to walk or attack. Blast it, why didn't he just kill her and be done with it.

"You're an idealistic fool," she spat, "even if you keep me from aiding Zabuza-san, he'll still kill your comrades!"

"If he does, I'll kill him," the voice was flat. It wasn't a threat; it was a statement of fact.

"What can you do?" Isaribi asked, "He's stronger than you."

"I don't need to be as strong as he is. I'll find a way, and if I don't, at least I'll be with my friends…"

"You're friends would abandon you in an instant," Isaribi hissed, "It's just how people really are. Even if you don't think you would, when push came to shove you would save yourself."

Hara laughed. He actually laughed. Isaribi felt fury rise up inside of her. He didn't know anything about the world. For all his power he was just another idiot like that Haku person.

"You've never seen it then," She hissed, "You've never had someone turn their back on you when you needed them most."

Slowly she reached up and took off the bandages on her face and arms. She was satisfied at the small intake of breath that she heard from the man. Her face was surely repulsive to him. Parts of it were covered in scales, and her arms were completely covered. She could change even more into a sea creature if she wanted, but those things would never go away.

"It's disgusting isn't it!" she screamed, "I'm a monster aren't I. You're afraid and wish to kill me!"

For a moment Hara was completely silent the he seemed to find his voice.

"…Who did this to you?"

"It doesn't matter," Isaribi said bitterly, "It was done, and when my parents saw…the entire village forced me to live away from them! Do you know why? Because I'm a monster who has no soul! This is what people are like! You don't know…you don't know…"

"…no, I don't know." Hara's voice was soft, "I have no idea what you've been through. I'm sorry; for all that it's worth. I'm sorry that you have something like that forced on you. It's always the same…everywhere… people who are different are always treated like monsters."

"You don't have THIS!" Isaribi almost screamed.

"No, I don't," Hara agreed, "Mine is an easier burden. I was born with the Hyoton. When you've known nothing but something, you can't miss the life you had, but…why? Why would they do that to you?"

"To make a perfect weapon," Isaribi's legs gave out beneath her, "It…was an experiment to make ninja who could breathe underwater… I was the first experiment."

She didn't know why she was telling him this. She never spoke of her past, but the sorrow that Hara had reacted with had surprised her. She had expected disgust, horror, but not sorrow and…compassion. Maybe she just wanted to scream out her story to anyone who cared enough to listen.

"There's a legend…in the village that I was born in. Sometimes the spirits would kidnap a child and take it with them to their world. If the child reappeared…they weren't really human anymore. The man…Amachi let me go back because…I don't know… when I came back, my parents refused to come anywhere near me, because I wasn't their child anymore. I was a monster. Then, Amachi came back to me, and told me that he could make me human again. I didn't want to work with him, but…if he had done it; I thought that he could undo it. He told me that as long as I did as I was told, he would turn me into a human again, but…one night, I heard him speaking to someone, a woman with blue hair, saying that I was almost done with my usefulness and I would be killed soon.

I had trusted him. I thought that he really was remorseful for what he did to me, but all he wanted was my powers. I killed him that night and ran away. He drowned. I killed him…and I was happy about it! You see, I'm a monster! You're human. You couldn't understand. I was happy!"

"You don't sound happy now," Hara said gently, "You sound like you regret it."

"I didn't when I did it," she hissed, "I didn't regret doing it at all."

Hara was quiet for a moment, "Then that means that I'm just as much of a monster as you are. Maybe more of one…"

Isaribi was silent; her voice had caught in her throat at that statement.

"I was born in a small farm village in Water Country. My mother and father and I lived very happily on my father's small wages. It was right after one of the many civil wars between the Mizukage and the Water Daimyo, and one of the prime clans, who had the power of the Hyoton had been almost completely eliminated. The people feared that clan and felt that anyone who held that bloodline was evil. When I was eight, almost nine, I was playing in the snow, when I found that I could create ice out of nothing. I went to show my mother, not knowing what I had. My mother was a carrier of the Hyoton, which had awoken within me. My mother told me never to show anyone, but my father had seen. He murdered my mother, and turned to kill me. In rage and sorrow, I caused him to be impaled on ice. I didn't regret what I had done…and I'm not sure if I do now. To my father, my mother and I had ceased to be human the moment he saw me use the Hyoton. We were just monsters."

"Then why?" Isaribi asked, "Why are you with these people… if you've been betrayed, if they really did that…why?"

"I told you before…when we were gathering herbs together," Hara said, making Isaribi jerk a little, "they acknowledged my existence. They found out about my kekkei genkai, which had caused my own father to think I was a monster, and they accepted me."

"You're different," Isaribi said, searching for a reason for why she had been cast away by everyone who didn't want to use her, "You don't look like a monster."

"Neither do you," Hara…Haku…said, Isaribi could hear a smile in his voice.

"Then you're not looking," Isaribi said bitterly, "What kind of human has scales?"

"The kind that has been through unimaginable pain and suffering that was thrust on them when they shouldn't have had to bear it. Like I said, you've suffered in a different way then I have. You had this thrust on you, while I was born with it. Some of my friends never knew anything other than hatred from others for a very long time. It's not fair is it? It's not fair that just because we're different they hate us and call us monsters."

"…I want to be a person again…" Isaribi muttered.

"You are human, Isaribi-chan," Haku said, appearing next to her, but ready to disappear if this was a ploy to allow her to attack him, "You've always been human."

"…but…I've"

"You've done nothing that makes you a monster. The monsters are the people who did this to you. Monsters aren't defined by how they look. They're defined by what they do. Isaribi…if you continue with Zabuza-san, you'll become a real monster."

"But…he said…that he knows someone who might be able to turn me back." Isaribi whispered.

"Who are they?" Haku asked.

Isaribi was silent. Her mind was racing. He had never given her a name. In fact, he had never talked about it again after she had agreed to join him two years ago. She had always been waiting for him to say that she had paid for her cure. What if he had been lying just like Amachi. She had allowed herself to be tricked again. Tears began to leak out of her eyes.

"I don't know if he was lying or not, but…my teacher…Tsunade-san is considered the greatest medic in the world, and…"

"Why should I trust you?" Isaribi asked.

"You have to trust someone," Haku said gently, "You have to take some kind of gamble, and I'd like to think that I'm a good bet. You don't have to answer me right away; after all, we have a long battle to sit through."

* * *

Sai was actually very impressed by the Uchiha girl. Sasuke had told them all his theory about her being a plant set up by Danzou, but he still thought of her as the Uchiha girl. Sai had known most of the people his age, and this girl wasn't one of them. Of course, she could have been one of the ones he never saw or she could have joined later. One thing, however was certain, her skill was above Genin level.

She couldn't see through the genjutsu he had placed, it was at least A-rank, but she was fighting well anyway. She was carefully launching attacks that had a broad range, but, Sai noticed, she didn't seem to care one way or another about the safety of her teammates, which was perfectly normal ROOT behavior, but also, from what Sai had read, perfectly normal Uchiha behavior.

Both Kiba and Shino were staying in one place. Kiba was trying to sniff the air, and Shino seemed to be doing something with his bugs, most likely eating away at the ink snake that he had summoned. Well, they could eat all they wanted; the chakra that had brought them to life had already been used. The only way to get rid of them was to kill them outright.

Sai moved to dodge a Goukakyuu that was going in the right direction, but had no real control. This girl wasn't as good as Sasuke. Even when Sai used his Kokuangyo, Sasuke usually was able to manage to hit him, just by judging from where his attacks were coming from.

"You're not very proficient…" Sai commented

"You talk too much," Yumi hissed throwing a kunai in the direction of his voice and narrowly missing Kiba, who felt the wind of it and cried out in surprise.

"Don't throw those things over here!" he yelled.

"Nothing is more important than the mission," Yumi stated, "including teammates."

"There is no emotion," Sai said, stating one of the fundamental laws of ROOT, "There is no self, there is only the mission. Am I right?"

"So, you understand," Yumi said, "Good, I've always wanted to go against an opponent who wasn't weak."

"I understand perfectly," Sai said, "Although…I wish I didn't."

"Hn," Yumi grunted.

She threw some more kunai, and Sai dodged again; this time she was a bit closer. She dashed towards him, but Sai didn't bother to attack her back. As long as he kept her from harming Tazuna, he didn't have to kill her.

"Why don't you kill us?" Yumi asked.

"Um, Yumi," Kiba said.

"I don't have to," Sai replied, "If a death is not necessary, I see no reason to kill."

"So, you're too weak mentally to kill us?" Yumi asked.

"Only someone who's not afraid to die themselves, should kill others," Sai said, remembering something that Tsunade had said, "and someone who's not afraid to die must come to terms with their own mortality. By doing that…it makes life something that shouldn't easily be destroyed just because you're more powerful."

"Your mercy will be your undoing," Yumi said coldly, and just for a second, Sai thought he saw…

No, that was impossible…

Sai quickly drew a succession of lion dogs and sent them on the attack. Yumi drew two kunai from her pouch and began to fight almost like they were twin swords. Her motions were fluid, careful, well practiced and had an effortless quality that only came from long familiarity with a fighting style.

Sai continued to watch and create more opponents for her. She was doing well…too well.

* * *

"I've decided something," the woman called Nisshoku was saying, "Battles are only interesting if you're involved in them…"

"I've decided something," Rasen replied, "Shippuu can sit out the next battle, or Arashi, I don't really care which."

Tazuna decided that he really wished that they would stop holding a conversation and focus on what was going on around them.

Gesshoku tensed suddenly.

"I can see someone," she said suddenly, "Rasen, do you see the same thing?"

It seemed that Rasen also tensed a little.

"No, they must be out of range for me still. You have a greater range then I do. What is it?"

"There's a large group of people coming," Gesshoku said, "but I don't see chakra. They must be mercenaries."

"Wonderful," Nisshoku said, sounding pleased, "It looks like we may be able to fight after all."

"We are such psychos," Rasen pointed out.

"What do you mean 'we'?" Gesshoku asked.

* * *

Sasuke knew all of the legends of the Sharingan. He had grown up on them, and even once he had left, he still read about it, in hopes that when he activated it, he could use it quickly. He knew that usually it activated at a very low state of power, only with one comma-like tomoe in each eye. The tomoe allowed him to see different things: ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. He had tried to learn as much as he could, but nothing he had read came close to what he was experiencing.

Sasuke didn't know how many tomoes had awakened, but he had a feeling that it was two. After all, he could see both his taijutsu and ninjutsu.

The Sharingan was changing the flow of the battle. Sasuke wasn't just trying to get away from his attacks, he was attacking with Kimimaro.

Zabuza seemed to agree that the battle was changing; he wasn't playing with them anymore.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu," he said as more mist began to appear and make it impossible to see around them.

Too bad the Sharingan could see right through it.

"Haka," Sasuke said, "He's going to attack from the left."

"Got it," Kimimaro said, dashing into the area Sasuke pointed out, sword drawn and ready.

There was a clash and Kimimaro's bone sword and Zabuza's sword met each other. Sasuke knew from experience just how strong and sharp Kimimaro's sword was, and just the fact that it was holding up against Zabuza was proof enough. Both of them were pushing against one another, trying to force the other to jump back and give an opening. Sasuke took out one of the many scrolls under his Haori and bit his thumb. There was a poof of smoke and a large shuriken appeared in his hands. He threw it at the exact time that Kimimaro jumped back, forcing Zabuza to dodge, and giving Sasuke time to run in for an attack.

Zabuza swung his sword, but Sasuke jumped, landing on top of it and continuing his dash towards him, kunai appearing in his hands. Zabuza let the sword go with one hand with a kunai of his own, to block Sasuke's attack. Sasuke, in a flash of inspiration, kept running and jumped over the startled ninja, turning in mid air and throwing the kunai, not at Zabuza's vitals, but at his arms.

Zabuza realized a little too late and didn't quite have the time to dodge before two kunai grazed his arms and the bone sword had managed to slice a bit of his side.

Sasuke was out of breath and his legs were threatening to give out. This was the amount of work that it took to fight a Jonin level opponent. In a way it was exhilarating and in another, Sasuke just wanted to go to bed. Kimimaro was breathing hard too. This was different than the endless training sessions with Jiraiya. Jiraiya was an opponent who they had learned to read, which made things much easier.

"You know," Sasuke said, sounding a little tired, "For our first real opponent, I think we're doing good."

"I hope so," Kimimaro muttered, "Just hitting this guy is hard."

Both of them were facing Zabuza and preparing to continue the attack.

"You know," Zabuza said, getting back into an attack position, but not quite holding the sword right because of the wounds, "I'm going to have to take you kids seriously. Consider this a compliment; I haven't really had to fight someone like this in a long time."

Sasuke looked over at Kimimaro. He was starting to look tired as well. This might turn into an endurance fight, something that neither of them were good at.

Sasuke hated to admit it, but he was the product of a careful breeding program. It produced shinobi who were light, fast, and built to complete missions quickly. He had a fairly high amount of chakra, but one thing that the Uchiha had never put much store for was endurance or strength. It was true that Sasuke had tried to build up his endurance, but the fact was he wasn't built for long fights. That was Naruto and Gaara's speciality, particularly Naruto. He had seen his friend train for almost three weeks straight. Granted Naruto had almost collapsed and died right there, but he had done it. If they got into an endurance fight, Sasuke would lose.

Kimimaro wasn't that much better off. Even though he had been cured of Tainted Blood when he was younger, it appeared to have already been doing some damage. Kimimaro would sometimes get tired if he used his kekkei genkai too much. It didn't always happen, and Sasuke prayed that it wouldn't happen this time.

Zabuza charged forwards his sword in a killing arc, but it looked like Sasuke's kunai had damaged some muscle, because the swing was slower than it should have been and slightly clumsy, allowing Sasuke and Kimimaro to dodge, barely.

"What a disgusting display," a voice said coldly cutting through the mist.

* * *

Naruto turned around when Gaara appeared through the sand. Gaara had long ago learned how to turn into sand in order to spy and to travel quickly. He had turned into sand in order to attack Kakashi if he had proved himself to be untrustworthy.

Kakashi didn't look surprised at the sudden appearance; he had probably guessed he was there.

"There are a group of people who've turned up. One of them looks like Gato," Gaara told him, "What do you want to do?"

"Release the dome," Kakashi said suddenly, "I still have a mission to complete involving Gato. Thanks to his timely appearance, I and my team don't have to bother Tazuna-san any more."

Naruto looked over at Gaara, and both reached an unspoken agreement.

"If you attack Tazuna-san, I will kill you," Gaara said softly.

Kakashi looked like he believed him.

As Naruto replaced his mask, Kakashi smiled at him.

"I'll see you at the Exam Naruto-kun," he said.

What?

The dome began to disintegrate around them, giving Naruto a good look at what was going on.

Sai's genjutsu was still in perfect effect. That wasn't much of a surprise since Sai was probably the best at performing genjutsu other than Sakura, and that was one of Sai's best techniques. He really did live up to the name of Shin'en no Sai. The dome of mirrors showed that Haku was also perfectly fine. The only one of them who could escape that jutsu without a problem was Gaara. Sasuke and Kimimaro were both starting to look a little worse for wear, and Sasuke was bleeding. The battle between those two had stopped though, and Zabuza was staring at something that Naruto noticed for the first time.

At the opposite side of the bridge, a large group of rough, dangerous looking men had congregated. They were holding swords and clubs, but they didn't look like they were well trained. Naruto recognized mercenaries when he saw them, and cheap ones at that.

There were almost always ninja mercenaries running around. Half of them were mission nin, but there were those whose ancestors had survived the fall of various villages, and had not engulfed themselves into another village the way most families did.

Naruto knew for a fact that the Nara family was the remainder of a large and powerful family from a village known as Kage. Talk about unoriginal.

The fact that this guy had not hired ninja showed one of two things, either he was cheap, or he was stupid. Possibly both. No common mercenary could go up against an academy student, let along a real ninja. Mercenaries were meant to be the grunts in an army. They hadn't been trained to kill from the moment that they could walk the way that most ninja had been.

The man was short and fat looking. He had dark glasses on and a very unpleasant smirk. Something told Naruto that this was Gato. He looked over at Zabuza and his smirk widened.

"You call yourself the Demon of the Mist?" he sneered, "Maybe a baby demon, but you can't even win against a group of stray ninja that this old man dug up."

Zabuza turned to face him, and Naruto didn't have to be an expert at reading people to see that he wasn't happy.

"You know, I never was going to pay you," Gato was gloating, "I was just going to poison you once you'd done the job, but you know something, I like this better. Ninja are so ridiculously expensive."

Naruto noticed that Kakashi had vanished, and that the darkness around the Genin seemed to be dispersing, but whether it was the fact that Sai was finally starting to get tired or that Kakashi was doing something, he couldn't tell.

"Hakumei," Zabuza said loudly, "our disagreement is officially dissolved. I have no more interest or need for the old man. Do what you want to my assistant, but I want his head."

The dome of mirrors around where Haku was began to recede, so Haku was listening.

Zabuza didn't seem remotely interested in his assistant, he was dashing towards Gato with his sword raised, but he never had the chance to hit.

Kakashi appeared behind Gato, throwing a barrage of exploding tags at Zabuza, who didn't have time to dodge. He was winded and a little slow from his battle. He should have avoided the attack easily, but as it was, he avoided the tags themselves but the explosion sent him flying off of the bridge. There was a splash and Naruto didn't see anything more of Zabuza. He had a faint impression of something on the other side of the bridge jumping off, but shook it off.

Hakumei had all formed a barrier around Tazuna, waiting to see just what would happen and ready to attack.

Gato turned to face Kakashi with a smirk and probably a promise to reward him for his help, but anything he was going to say was forgotten by Kakashi's words.

"I'm here on an assignment, Gato. I was hired by Wantanabe-san to assassinate you. The conditions were that you must know who had killed you and that your head be brought to the client," Kakashi's voice was completely emotionless.

"No, wait, I'll pay-"

Whatever Gato was going to say was never finished. He was dead before he could complete the sentence and before the mercenaries had time to react. One moment Kakashi was standing behind Gato, the next he was in fount of his team with Gato's head.

"Kai!" he said, calmly dispersing what was left of Sai's jutsu.

Kiba looked around frantically, trying to get his barrings. Shino seemed completely indifferent, only once looking over to Hakumei and bowing his head, apparently acknowledging defeat. Yumi stood calmly, a kunai in both hands, looking like she was prepared to continue or retreat, depending on Kakashi's orders.

"Hey, you!" one of the mercenaries called, his brain finally back in circulation, "You killed our meal ticket!"

"Forget him, let's loot the village," Another, calmer voice said, "Fighting ninja is for idiots."

"You're right!" someone else yelled pointing at Hakumei, "let's loot and kill these guys, they're not real ninja!"

"Number one rule for being a cliché hero," a young voice said, "always arrive late; it adds to the drama!"

Naruto turned to see Inari along with what looked like all of Wave standing at the base of the bridge. With him were nine Bunshin in the forms of himself, Sasuke, Sai, Neji, Sakura, Gaara, Kimimaro, Hinata, and Haku. Naruto mentally patted himself on the back. No one would think that they were Hakumei now. Unless they were Kakashi.

"You're not wanted on this island!" one of the men who Naruto recognized as a former bridge worker yelled.

"And what are you going to do about it?" a mercenary asked mockingly, "You guys don't have any real weapons."

"But they do have us," Gaara said softly as sand began to snake around the feet of the mercenaries, "Leave. Now. Or you will regret it."

"Your deaths are unnecessary," Hinata said in just as soft a voice, "but if you insist, we will kill you."

The mercenaries wavered. For some reason, the masked figures disturbed them slightly. There was something about them that said that they were all trained killers, who would have no objections to attacking if they made the wrong move.

"Oh, come on," Neji muttered, "Let's just kill them and be done with it. I didn't get a chance to fight anyway, this ought to be interesting.

"Gesshoku, Nisshoku, Rasen," Naruto said, "Looks like you get to see battle after all. Don't damage the bridge."

"Hai," three voices chorused.

This time, the mercenaries had had enough; they ran, only to have the three in hot pursuit.

"That ought to keep them busy," Naruto sighed, "and keep the complaints down."

"Now all we have to deal with is the other problem," Sasuke said.

"What other problems?" Kimimaro asked, then noticed the Genin, "Ah, those problems."

Kiba looked like he was both ready and willing to try to take all six present members on single handedly.

"Alright, let's crush them!" Kiba said, already getting ready to make a dash for Naruto.

"Kiba, stand down," Kakashi said calmly, "the mission is over, Gato's head has been recovered."

"But," Kiba looked shocked, "what about them!"

"We have no more need to fight them. They were hired to protect Tazuna-san, and we are no longer going to threaten him. The mission is complete. We are returning to Konoha."

"Excellent," Yumi said, "This place's filth was beginning to make me ill."

Shino said nothing.

Without a word of farewell, the three Konoha nin vanished, but before they had left, Naruto had seen Kakashi look back at them and at Tazuna.

There was sorrow in his eyes.

Just for a second, Naruto wondered just how awful it would be to have to follow orders that were against everything he stood for. To have to pretend that you were loyal to someone who secretly you wished only the most painful of deaths. It was impossible for him to hate Kakashi. After all, what would he have done in that situation?

Naruto turned to Tazuna and looked around for Tsunami's face. She was already wading through the crowd to get closer to them. When she had reached the forefront, she took a while to collect herself.

"I don't know if I or anyone in Wave will ever be able to thank you enough," she said softly.

"Don't thank us," Haku said, "The Konoha nin killed Gato."

"Yes, but you made sure that my father was safe, you got rid of the mercenaries, and according to Taiki-kun here, you made sure that no one attacked the house," Tsunami said, patting a Bunshin who was looking rather pleased with the situation. She took out an envelope and smiled a little, "This is the money that you asked for, but I don't think that it will ever cover our gratitude. You've done so much for Wave, even before this…"

Naruto took the envelope, and felt a weight in his heart. He had planned on just disappearing, but it didn't look like it was possible.

"What happened to Zabuza?" someone asked.

"He was knocked over the bridge during the fight, and his assistant went after him," Haku supplied.

"So he's still alive?" Inari asked, sounding frightened.

"Possibly," Haku said, "but I doubt it."

Naruto knew from the slight lift in Haku's voice that he was lying. Zabuza had survived and he was covering up for him.

Why?

Naruto bowed to Tsunami politely, "It was an honor to help such good people. Unfortunately, the time has come for us to leave."

Before anyone could say anything, Sasuke spoke up.

"Those ninja know that we're here, and they will report our presence to their superiors. If we don't leave now, there'll be trouble for all of you when they come to collect us. Our presence is a danger to you. Villages dislike large, organized groups of ninja running around free, so it's best for all of us if we leave."

Inari turned to the Naruto Bunshin, "does that mean you're leaving too, Taiki-niisan?"

The Bunshin laughed a little, putting one hand behind his head, "Yeah, we work for them, and well…"

Inari looked like he was getting ready to cry, and he put his head down.

"Hey," the Bunshin said, "don't be too sad, I'll see you again. Hakumei's jobs take us all over the place, so we'll see each other again one day. Who knows, maybe we'll be back sooner than you, or I, think.

Inari looked a little happier at that statement. Further conversation was interrupted by the return of Neji, Hinata, and Sakura.

"Are they gone?" Sai asked.

"They're probably halfway to Lightning Country at the rate they were going," Neji said, he sounded rather pleased with himself.

Inari sniffed a little bit and looked up at Hakumei, tears were still in his eyes, but he was controlling himself.

"Thank you, ninja-sans," he said softly, he sniffed again, "make sure you send Taiki-niisan and the others back here soon."

Sakura leaned forwards, and Naruto heard her whisper to him, "Don't worry, we'll be back one day, oh, and no matter what Masaru says, real men can cry, you don't have to be a rock all the time."

She straightened and they all looked at the faces of the people around them. They were grateful, and…happy looking. Something about them had changed. They didn't have a hangdog, defeated air about them anymore. There was something in them that looked like they were ready to fight again. That weren't really cowards; they had just had to be shown that they did have a chance to win against seemingly more powerful enemies.

Naruto was sure that Inari's father would have been happy.

"Everyone…Sayonara,"

All of them, including the Bunshin, disappeared in smoke.

Inari looked over at his grandfather, "They were really great ninja weren't they?"

Tazuna nodded and looked around at the bridge, "For all the fighting and struggle that went into building this thing, it needs a good name."

"How about…the Great Hakumei Bridge?" Inari suggested.

Tazuna grinned and there were some cheers and claps in the crowd.

"I like it. With a name like that, this bridge will last forever and be a lasting sign to never give up in the face of adversity…"

* * *

**Omake:** Birthday

It was five fifty-nine on the morning of October the tenth, and Tsunade's sleep was interrupted with a scream.

"YOU STARTED TOO EARLY!"

Tsunade groaned and rolled over, putting her pillow over her head. These crazy kids and their insane ways of celebrating birthdays were not something that she was going to think about at this hour. Unfortunately, her wish was not granted.

Naruto dashed past her room, loudly, with what sounded like everyone else in hot pursuit.

"Don't worry, Naruto," Sasuke called out, "It won't hurt too long!"

A kunai came flying out of nowhere and hit Naruto. With a poof, the Bunshin vanished.

They all stopped.

"That cheater," Kimimaro muttered, "he was ready for us. He's hiding somewhere…"

"Come out, come out wherever you are, Naruto-kun," Hinata chanted in a sing song voice.

Tsunade heard the group split into different fractions, some heading outside, all of them with one plan in mind: to beat Shippuu no Naruto to within an inch of his life.

It was almost six when they finally caught up with him. Naruto had created roughly two hundred Bunshin and he had been hiding in the one place that they would look last: Jiraiya's library. Since Naruto was immune to Jiraiya's books, he had nothing to worry about, also, he had a habit of picking out things to read that were sappy but nothing else. At five minutes to six, all the doors to the room flew open and Naruto found himself surrounded. He was pinned by one of Sai's snakes and watched in horror as they advanced on him.

Somewhere in the house, a bell chimed six times.

Eight attacks that were about to hit Naruto were cancelled, and Naruto was suddenly being carried by Gaara's sand and surrounded by an honor guard of his friends, who were singing 'for he's a jolly good fellow.'

"Happy Birthday!" Kimimaro cried.

Naruto sighed in relief. This was the most insane tradition ever made.

He was going to have to get them all good on their birthdays.

* * *

_Wow, I'm so psyched by some of the manga. I knew that Danzou was going to do something nasty to try to be Hokage… That was what this whole story was built off of…_

_I'm such a genius…_

_Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter, and that I've got you curious as to what's going to happen. I'm giving no hints, but if I wasn't clear about something in this chapter, talk to me and I'll do my best to clear it up._

_Additional Notes:_

_Activating the Sharingan: If you notice, during the point when Sasuke activated his Sharingan, he didn't seem to notice until later. And when he was fighting Orochimaru, Sasuke kept thinking 'I can see him'. It seems to activate when a person is very stressed, or when they are trying to protect someone else (like with Obito)._

_Haku's convincing: I know that usually this is Naruto's job, but actually, Haku changed Naruto a little. Before they met, Naruto didn't really have any reason to be Hokage other than to have people pay attention to him. It was only after he had met Haku that he began to want to protect other people. In a way, Haku passed on his philosophy to someone who will probably become great because of it. _

_Sasuke's fight scene with Zabuza: Can you guess what anime influenced this? Hint: It's an older one that ended rather abruptly._

_Translations:_

_Teshi Sendan (Finger Bullet Drill)_

_A jutsu that allows the user to fire fingertip bones at an opponent like bullets. Since this jutsu can only be used by someone with the Kaguya kekkei genkai, which has regenerative bones, the arson is limitless. _

_Tsubaki no Mai (Dance of the Camellia)_

_This jutsu is preformed __by modifying the humerus (upper arm bone) of either his right or left arm to create a short, hiltless bone sword._

_Kirigakure no Jutsu_

_A jutsu that envelops the surrounding area in a dense mist, reducing visibility within the affected area. The density can be controlled by the user, allowing them to create a mist so thick that even they can't see through it. Also if the mist is thick enough, genjutsu will have no effect._

_Thanks for your patience in this chapter. I hope that you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoy writing!_

_Review!_


	13. Part 2: Mission

_Alright, here we are again. This is another transition chapter; after all, I need to tie a few things together before the next chapter. I'm really looking forwards to it, and if you're one of the people who can't wait until they return to Konoha, you are too._

_Things are going to get a little wild from here are on so that only thing that I can say is:_

_Abandon all canon, ye who enter here._

_Sasuke's fight scene: The anime is Rounin Kenshin. I loved that show so much. Oro will always be a part of my vocabulary! Also, there is another reference to Code Geass that I didn't mention. It's when Sai is talking to Yumi and says that only someone who isn't afraid to die should kill other people. I love doing that so much! (Making references, not killing people…)_

_Disclaimer: Pryotra has no connection to Naruto, and she's writing this story to alleviate boredom, preserve her sanity, and make an outlet for her fangirlish moments._

_Thanks to Mega B (Ibby-kun) for betaing for me!_

_**Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.**_

_**-Minnie Louise Haskins**_

_**

* * *

  
**_

For Naruto, the celebration of their victory, held in a small run down inn that had been abandoned not too long ago, would always start out in snapshots.

He and Sasuke with their arms on each other's shoulders singing 'We are the Champions'.

Kimimaro attempting to take out his entire skeleton and make it dance, only to have to drink about a gallon of milk in one go to keep himself conscious.

Sai drawing scenes from the battle, as described, and making them come to life for those who were not able to see every single blow.

Gaara giving verbal replays (enhanced in order to sound more interesting) to Neji, who was looking sulky.

Sakura and Hinata (with Naruto and Sasuke) sneaking up on Haku with a very pink kimono in order to force him to wear it.

All of them sitting around telling and retelling everything that had happened, laughing at there success, and not quite sure if it was real, or just a dream. All of them had gorged themselves on their favorite foods, and Sasuke was still eating a tomato when the group finally began to talk about serious matters.

"What do you think that Kakashi meant when he said that he would see us at the Exams?" Hinata asked, thoughtfully, "I wish that we had looked at the letter."

"Me too," Sakura moaned, "Naruto, why didn't you?"

"Because Hentai-sensei would have known," Sai said, applying his own nickname for Kakashi, based off of his love for Icha Icha, "he's considered one of Konoha's best ninja, you know."

Sakura muttered something inaudible that sounded like, "he still should have looked at it."

"I didn't want to push anything," Naruto said, "I think we can trust him not to reveal who we are to Danzou though. He knew who I was from the beginning, and he didn't do anything."

"Yeah, but…" Neji, always suspicious, began.

"Besides, there are more important things to discuss," Naruto turned to Haku, "What's with Zabuza?"

Haku looked a little embarrassed.

"Well, I didn't think that he would cause any harm…we weren't enemies anymore…"

"What do you mean, for all we know, he's going to kill us!" Sakura said, "Haku!"

Haku looked even more embarrassed.

"Then again…" Kimimaro said, a bit of a smirk on his face, "he owes us."

Naruto grinned a little.

Ninja, being solders that, ideally, had no feelings towards their opponents other then the fact that they had to kill or be killed, had rules about how to act. This was especially true of missing nin or unaffiliated ones. If there was a chance for both of them to live, without jeopardizing the mission, it was always preferable. If the winner had to lie or pull a few strings for the sake of the loser, the loser owed the winner, and the winner could recall that debt whenever they wanted.

"But we don't know if he's sane enough to follow the rules," Sasuke pointed out, taking a bite of his tomato, "When Kimimaro and I fought him, the only thing I got from him was that he really liked to fight. The more blood the better."

"What is it with Kiri nin and blood?" Hinata sighed.

"It's trait that all of them seem to share isn't it?" Sai agreed.

"They also really like to call themselves demons," Naruto pointed out, "Zabuza: Demon of the Mist. The Demon Brothers, who were kind of pathetic. Kisame, doesn't his name mean 'Demon Shark' or something?"

"You can see where he got the name," Sasuke muttered.

"His mother named him very appropriately," Gaara nodded.

"I hope we never have to go against him," Haku said, "There's something about his blue skin that's always disturbed me a little…"

"Anyways," Neji said, "back to the topic, Zabuza, did you have any other reasons other than a possible favor?"

Haku nodded, "I…felt that Isaribi-chan, she was Zabuza's assistant, should talk to him a little. She…is something like us, but I don't think I should say unless she lets me, or shows you herself if we meet again. Zabuza said that he knew someone who could help her, but he might have been lying. I wanted to give her a chance to talk to him without someone else around."

Sai nodded.

"I guess that's alright," Neji said grudgingly, "he did call the fight to an end…"

"I guess there really isn't much else to say," Gaara shrugged, "We'll find out what happens. By the way, we're going home right?"

"You mean Ero-sennin's place?" Naruto asked, "Yeah, I thought that would be the best idea…"

"What are we going to tell Tsunade-san?" Sai asked.

Everyone looked at one another.

"That…is going to take some fast talking;" Sakura said thoughtfully, "Sasuke is not eligible for the job."

"Thank goodness," Sasuke muttered, "I really don't like being thrown through a wall, or given Ninja Puffs three meals a day."

"What is it with you and that stupid cereal?" Neji sighed.

"I'll talk to Baa-chan," Naruto cut in, "Or Hinata or Sakura. I don't think that any of the rest of us will be able sweet talk her enough. Eventually, I think she's going to find out."

"Would it be worse for us to be there or out on a mission?" Sai said thoughtfully.

"You know…" Kimimaro said just as thoughtfully, "I can't really say, they both have some disadvantages…"

"At any rate," Hinata said, breaking up the conversation, which seemed to be on the verge of turning into nonsense, "We should get some sleep. We're going to be traveling all day tomorrow."

Naruto sent her a grateful look.

Since the inn was supposed to be abandoned, it didn't take much to turn out the lights. There was no one around that any of them had been able to sense, and places like this were the best places to go when you didn't want attention. Water Country was full of inns and even towns that had been abandoned or everyone had been killed. Since the country was at constant civil war, and the Mizukage kept changing, things were always like this. Naruto had a feeling that things were probably worse in Earth County at the moment.

He wondered just where they would go next…maybe it would have something to do with the Chuunin Exam the way that Kakashi had said.

* * *

It was somewhere around midnight when Naruto woke up. He was sleeping in the main room with the others, Sakura and Hinata hadn't been too keen on sleeping in a room by themselves that night. The inn was probably an easy place to break into, and judging that Kimimaro was in the same area, he probably would have done his best to freak them out.

There were some people who were simply born for their kekkei genkai, and in Naruto's opinion, Kimimaro was one of those people.

At first, Naruto wasn't sure what had woken him up, and looked over at Gaara, who was sitting up in the meditating pose that he usually took. Gaara was always the one on watch since he didn't sleep anyways. He would meditate, read, or, if he was inspired, make sand sculptures. Naruto had even once found him attempting to write a book. He had given that up since, according to him, nothing good came to him. Sai said that it was because of when he had read Jiraiya's…books…he had been traumatized. Gaara didn't exactly disagree.

Naruto sat up and looked over at Gaara.

Gaara's eyes opened.

"Something woke me up," Naruto told him.

"Me too," Sasuke's tired, somewhat crabby voice muttered, "I swear if it's a bandit, I'm going to kill them."

"It's very bad to be bad tempered when you just wake up," Sai said.

"If you're about to make some nasty, crude reference," Sasuke muttered, "then I will remind everyone of your old obsession with certain things."

"I'd rather you didn't,"

"Then shut up,"

Hinata shook her head, "both of you, this isn't the time," she said softly but firmly, "we need to prepare for our guests…"

Sakura smirked, "That's right, where are your manners?"

The rest, even Haku, seemed amused by this.

"Let's get everything ready for them," Haku said.

Getting ready for them meant setting up a great deal of traps that would be set off on a moment's notice. Everyone in position, sitting by the relit fire, Naruto vaguely realized that they were still in their Hakumei uniforms, but he didn't really think too hard about it.

They waited in total silence for what felt like at least an hour, but was probably only about fifteen minutes. Hinata and Neji had both activated their Byakugans but they couldn't see more than the fact that there were two people coming, and they were both doing their best to hide their chakra signatures.

Naruto heard the steps of someone at the door to the inn, and he waited for the door to open suddenly. He was a little surprised when the door was thrown open violently to reveal two figures.

Zabuza stared at the group of children, the oldest of which was fifteen for a moment in total silence. Naruto didn't know what he had been expecting, but it probably wasn't to find out that Hakumei were a group of kids. Zabuza stared for a while longer and finally a reaction came. He started laughing. Hard.

"Sharingan Kakashi and I both had to really work to fight a bunch of kids?!" he howled between snickers, "and here I was thinking that I would find a group of missing nin!"

"Yeah, we're kids," Sasuke grumbled.

Zabuza stopped laughing rather abruptly, and looked over each of the members, hard.

"You're not from a village," there was no question in his words; "I wondered why I couldn't place your fighting style. It was slightly like Konoha's before its reform, but not quite. There were parts from Kiri and Suna as well. I'm sure you kids have a fascinating life story that I'm not going to get out of you."

"What do you want, Zabuza?" Naruto asked, ready to unleash the first wave of traps if he even breathed wrong.

"Is it such a crime to be interested in just what my 'saviors' want from me?" Zabuza said with mock pain in his voice.

"Also…I wanted to see you again," a soft voice murmured.

Isaribi slowly stepped out from behind Zabuza, her face bandaged and her head down.

Naruto noticed that Haku looked rather happy to see her.

"…I've spoken to Zabuza-san about…" Isaribi trailed off, looking at the others, "my problem…do you think that this Tsunade could help me?"

"If anyone could," Haku said with complete confidence. He looked over at Zabuza, "Who were you talking about?"

Zabuza looked away, and Naruto couldn't tell if he was embarrassed or simply annoyed that he had to answer the question. "A woman I know from Kiri, she and I had an…agreement with one another, but as a missing nin, I can't get near her."

"Well, at least we know that you weren't lying…" Naruto said.

"I know about Tsunade," Zabuza's voice was suspicious, "but why would she do anything for you?"

"Let's just say that we know each other," Sakura told him.

"I would like to meet her as soon as possible…" Isaribi told them.

"And I'd like to get rid of this little debt," Zabuza snarled.

"Well, we don't have a job at the moment," Sai said, false smile in place, "So you're going to have to wait."

Zabuza growled a little at this statement. The last thing that he apparently wanted to do was wait for them to get a job.

"We are going to see Tsunade in the morning though," Hinata said, speaking for the first time.

Isaribi looked hopefully at Zabuza.

"Can we travel with them?" she asked.

Zabuza looked annoyed. Apparently he wanted them to give him a job and be done with it.

"Fine," he said shortly, "At least if I hang around, I might be able to get this job over with."

* * *

Traveling with Zabuza and Isaribi was not really something that Naruto found fun.

For one thing, Zabuza was always growling, glaring, or seemed like he had a liver complaint, unless someone was talking about his sword, which he seemed to have some sort of obsession with. Naruto had already heard more about its care and maintenance than he had ever really wanted to in his entire life. Sasuke seemed vaguely interested, but thought that Zabuza's sword was too big for him to ever really want.

Isaribi was quiet. Very quiet. She seemed to think that everyone might just be against her, and Haku kept giving her strange looks like he wanted to talk to her about something. Once Naruto had caught her staring at him, and he had walked over and asked what was wrong.

"You know about Haku's kekkei genkai," she said, starting the conversation very bluntly.

"Yeah, I figured it out after I met him," Naruto told her, "Cool ability, too. I wish I had a kekkei genkai. All I have is Fuzzy Wuzzy."

"What?"

Naruto remembered who he was talking to very quickly and shock his head, "don't worry about it."

Naruto had grown rather complacent about talking about the Kyuubi. When he was nine he had worked up the courage to tell the rest of Hakumei about it. Sasuke and Sakura and chased him all around Jiraiya's, angry that he hadn't trusted them. Haku had been extremely understanding, since in his mind, Naruto was hiding something much more revolting then a kekkei genkai. Hinata had sat looking at him with a look that made him rather uncomfortable; it was like she suddenly completely understood something. Neji had seemed completely unaffected, and when asked why he wasn't mad, had said that he had guessed since he had seen red chakra coming out of him once. Gaara repeated that he had a demon inside of him rather calmly, and for the first time, everyone believed him. Kimimaro had said that he really didn't care just what they had been made to contain, he knew a demon when he saw one, his family being prime examples and he knew Naruto and Gaara were anything but demons.

After that, Naruto had grown rather comfortable with occasionally complaining about Kyuubi and he bestowed upon it the 'affectionate' nickname of 'Fuzzy Wuzzy'. He also named the Shukaku 'Sandy Wandy." Gaara informed him that Shukaku was not amused and was screaming about eating him. Naruto told him to tell Shukaku that Kyuubi already had probably called first dibs.

Naruto hadn't actually spoken to the thing since that one time when he was seven.

"Sasuke, Hinata, Neji and Kimimaro also have kekkei genkai. It's pretty common in this group," Naruto continued as if nothing had happened.

"Oh…so because they outnumber you, you allow them?" Isaribi asked.

"What?" Naruto cocked his head a little, "No! Where I was born, having a kekkei genkai is a really good thing. But that doesn't matter anyways. We hang around each other…well, I guess it's 'cause we like each other and we're stronger around each other. Haku says that we're his precious people and I guess that goes for all of us. I never really thought about it too much."

Isaribi was completely silent, but then spoke again, "Haku said that you all have suffered a lot before you met one another. Why didn't you go on your own if you knew that trusting people only led to betrayal?"

"Well, I guess that…we were lucky. Neji was born into the branch house of his family and was treated kind of like a slave, but he gained real family when Hinata, who's his cousin even though she calls him her brother, stood up for him. They were both disowned. Sasuke was ignored and pushed aside in favor of his older brother, who seems to be the only one who actually liked him. He ran away. Sakura just was at the wrong place at the right time and saw something she shouldn't have and had to come with us. Sai…he's an orphan who was recruited by a psychopath's army. Someone he thought of as a brother died and he ran into us when he was trying to clear his head. I was born on the same day that a monster attacked our village and killed a lot of people, and no one could look at me without seeing family and friends who were killed. I wasn't really mister popular. Gaara's mom died giving birth to him, and because of his powers, his father and uncle tried to kill him. Kimimaro was locked up in a little underground room because his kekkei genkai had manifested itself, until we met him, and you probably know about Haku. Tsunade says that misery is magnetically attracted to more misery, and we learned to depend on one another to survive."

"You are lucky," Isaribi said then after a moment asked, "Did Haku tell you what happened to me?"

"No, he said that that was up to you," Naruto said lightly.

Isaribi had seemed surprised at Naruto's words, "Oh, I thought that he would tell you…"

"Well, it's a bit different than usual," Naruto admitted.

Isaribi had said nothing after that. She had just ducked her head and started walking again. She hadn't said much of anything to anyone else after that. Sakura had tried to get her into a conversation, but as of yet, nothing had worked.

Finally, they were back at what Naruto saw as Jiraiya's mountain. He had sent a toad ahead of them to tell them they were coming. Naruto was still trying to figure out what a good excuse would be when they reached the mansion.

"Oi, gaki, you said that this guy was a hermit," Zabuza said looking at Naruto suspiciously, "What kinda hermit lives in a place like this?"

"Ero-sennin," Naruto replied shortly.

"Jiraiya-sensei's not really much of a hermit," Neji supplied, "I think he just likes to have some ornate place where no one can get at him where he can write his…trash."

Further conversation was interrupted by the door opening and Tsunade walking out, arms folded and a very dark glare on her face.

"Hiya, Baa-chan!" Naruto said with a very large whiskered grin, "Guess what?"

Tsunade's glare intensified.

"We're back!" Naruto continued in the same obliviously cheerful tone, "We got bored with chasing cats around. Did you miss us?"

"Chasing cats?" Tsunade said in a calm voice that set the hair at the back of Naruto's neck rising, "that's funny; I heard that you were beating up mercenaries, meeting with Konoha nin, delivering secret messages, and oh, did you know that there are plans in Wave to build a statue of you as well as christen that bridge in your honor?"

Naruto blinked. This was really, really bad.

"And look," Tsunade said, her eyes sliding over to Zabuza, "You brought a friend…a missing nin who was presumed dead by any chance?"

"…um…yes?" Sakura said in a small voice that.

"It was his idea," eight voices spoke in unison, pointing at Haku.

"I don't care whose brilliant idea this was," she said in the same deadly voice, "we will…discuss…this at length at a later date. At present, you have a costumer."

"What?" Kimimaro asked, totally taken aback.

"We didn't tell anyone about this place!" Gaara exclaimed, his black-rimmed eyes widening.

"No," Tsunade agreed, "If you had, your ancestors would be feeling the pain that I would inflict upon you. This person is Jiraiya's contact from Grass. Jiraiya brought him here. You two," she suddenly barked, looking at Zabuza and Isaribi, "what do you want!"

"I…I want…help," Isaribi muttered softly, "Haku…he told me that you might be able to help me."

"I just want to get my debt paid off as soon as possible," Zabuza grumbled, "the fact that the girl wanted to come too is her business."

Tsunade ignored Zabuza's statement and walked over to Isaribi and leaned a little over her. She looked at the bandage on her face and slowly peeked under it. She snapped the bandage back in place immediately after that.

"Who-never mind," Tsunade said, her tone had changed to a business-like one. "I won't embarrass you. I don't know who did this, and I don't really care. Treatment may take a long time, and I can't guarantee anything, but I'll do my best."

"How much do you need?" Isaribi asked.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "For this? Nothing. This is interesting enough to be payment in and of itself."

Naruto knew better. He had never seen Tsunade actually accept payment from anyone, even though hundreds of people came to see her all the time it seemed. They would have all kinds of strange things, and she would tell them that if they let her use them to help train her assistants, they wouldn't have to pay.

Naruto had the feeling that she simply refused to take money from people who needed to be healed. It was too bad that that made her an even more aggressive gambler.

"Alright, foxface, you and the others better get in there and talk to Jiraiya and the costumer. I swear that you will regret not telling me about what was really going on in wave. Just you wait until he's gone…"

There were some nervous looks exchanged. And Sai raised a hand.

"Should we wear our masks?" he asked.

"No, the client has been told of your real ages," Tsunade told them.

Not wanting to try the woman's patience anymore, and hoping that she would soon become so preoccupied with Isaribi she would forget all about their…leaving out certain bits of information, they all slipped into the house with Zabuza following.

They entered Jiraiya's sitting room to find that Jiraiya himself was sitting comfortably talking with a tall, nervous looking man.

He was about medium height with dark hair that almost looked green in certain lights and was wearing the standard Chuunin or Jornin uniform. The hitai-ite on his forehead had the symbol of Kusagakure and the way that he held himself showed that he was probably a fairly important Grass nin.

Jiraiya grinned when he saw them.

"Well, speak of the devils," he said, and the guest turned around to look at them. His eyes got very wide when he saw Zabuza and he gave Naruto a look that showed that he would be explaining just what the missing nin was doing with them.

"This is Hakumei," Jiraiya said, "Shippuu no Naruto, Arashi no Sasuke, Nisshoku no Sakura, Gesshoku no Hinata, Shin'en no Sai, Rasen no Neji, Hara no Haku, Sabaku no Gaara, and Haka no Kimimaro. Everyone, this is Kita Hideki, he's an acquaintance from Kusagakure who came to me with a bit of a problem that I told him you could help him with.

"What's the problem?" Neji asked.

Hideki cleared his throat a little, "Is the man with you trustworthy?"

"At the moment?" Naruto said, "I think so. Later? I really have no idea."

"I can be paid to keep my mouth shut," Zabuza supplied.

This didn't seem to reassure Hideki all that much.

"He won't tell," Hinata promised smiling a little, "I can promise that he won't."

Sakura, who stood next to Zabuza muttered something and Zabuza turned his head very quickly to where Hinata stood.

"She can do that?" he asked in a hushed tone.

Sakura nodded.

"I'll keep my mouth shut," Zabuza said, eyeing Hinata with a sort of surprised respect.

Hideki glanced at Sakura and Hinata, but at a nod from Jiraiya he began to speak again.

"As I'm sure you already know, the Chuunin Exams are in Konoha this time, and they're beginning very soon. Kusa is a small village and since it borders Konoha and we don't have a Kage ourselves, we depend on Konoha's good will. Since the Godaime Hokage, Danzou, took control, we have been even more worried about our position with Konoha. Since we are ruled solely by the Grass Daimyo, we know some things that some ninja who actually have a Kage don't. The Fire Daimyo doesn't really know that much about what's happening and why. He's losing power rapidly and is becoming nothing more than a puppet. He knows that Iwa attacked them and killed the Sandaime, but he's being pressured into giving more and more power to Danzou. He would be no help to us if Konoha decided to attack us. As such, everything that we do towards Konoha is done with careful consideration, including sending at least one team of Genin every Chuunin Exam. We sent a team this time, but around half way there, communication stopped abruptly. We fear the absolute worst. If they do not appear to take the Exam, then we may be attacked for slighting them."

"I see," Naruto nodded, "and you need us…"

"To enter the Exams under the guise of Grass nin." Hideki explained, "We will provide all the necessary paperwork, passports, and false identities. All you nine have to do is claim to be Grass Genin and compete in the Exams. As there are nine of you, you are able to go in the traditional groups of three. I would ask that you try to win, and would pay extra should you get promoted to Chuunin. If that happens, Kusa would appear to have power and might not be so easily attacked."

"Is there anything else?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, if you can, attempt to find out what happened to the team that we sent out. Someone might have survived or the Jounin might have been wounded," Hideki told them.

"Alright," Kimimaro nodded, "That shouldn't be too much of a problem. We will keep on the look out and even check the surrounding forest for any traces."

"Oh, and one more thing," Hidaki looked a little nervous. "We don't have a Jounin who is able to act as a sensei to all three false teams. It would be acceptable for us to send only one, but…the only one who would have been able to was wounded two days ago and is still in the hospital. Is it possible that you would know someone who could pose as a Jounin?"

Sasuke looked at Jiraiya.

"Oh, no," Jiraiya said, holding up his hands, "I've go a lot of other things to prepare for, and I can't be playing babysitter. And don't bother to ask Tsunade."

"We wouldn't have," Gaara said, "She has a new patient that seems like she might take some time."

"Then who should we use?" Neji said thoughtfully.

Slowly, one by one, they all turned to look at Zabuza.

"That could work," Sai said, "all he would have to do is take off his mask and no one would be able to know who he was…"

Zabuza seemed to realize just what they meant and backed up a step.

"Oh, no," he said, "No way,"

"You said that you wanted to pay your debt," Sasuke reminded him.

"Yeah," Zabuza said, "but I meant to help you kill someone not pretend to be your sensei."

"Well, really," Haku said thoughtfully, "this is better."

"It's longer, but you don't have to do anything other than stand around," Gaara nodded, "We do all the real work."

"There wouldn't even be all that much that he'd need to do to look different," Sakura said thoughtfully, "Take off the face mask…maybe change the hair color a little…make it look like that sword's not there, it's a little recognizable.

"Would you not talk about this like I'm not here?" Zabuza snarled, "I haven't even agreed to go."

Sasuke muttered something under his breath that sounded like "and you have a choice?"

Sai coughed a little.

"Laugh it up!" Zabuza growled at Sai, who was unmistakably snickering.

"We need to think of a name for him," Haku pointed out.

"How about Honda-sensei," Kimimaro suggested, "it's a common enough name."

"What makes you think that I'm even going to come?" Zabuza asked angrily.

"…you did say that you wanted to pay off your debt to us as soon as you could," Gaara pointed out.

"By pretending to be our sensei, you'll pay off your debt," Hinata said, "Besides; I doubt that Isaribi will be very useful while Tsunade is working with her. Tsunade is very dedicated once she decides that she's interested in something. I don't think you'll be able to get your assistant back for a while. And although you pretend to care nothing for her, you were intending on helping here; therefore, you have some kind of attachment."

Zabuza looked like he wanted to disagree, but hadn't figured out how to do it convincingly.

"If I pretend to be your babysitter for this Exam, my debt's paid?" He finally said.

"Yep," Naruto said brightly.

"And I never have to see you hellions again?"

"Yes," Sai nodded.

"I'll do it,"

"He still hasn't figured out that he didn't have a choice has he?" Sasuke hissed to Naruto.

Sai snickered again.

"Urusai!"

"Hideki-san," Naruto said over the cursing of Zabuza, "Hakumei accepts this mission."

* * *

Naruto sat down in his usual place at the table, looking at Jiraiya. Neji was keeping an eye one Hideki and Zabuza, and Haku was making sure that Neji stayed awake by making the room extremely cold when he started to look like he was thinking of sneaking a nap. Everyone else was present, even Tsunade, who had only come because Isaribi needed to sleep.

The lights were low in the little room, one of Jiraiya's many secret rooms, only big enough for the table and chairs. The man was a bit of an enigma, he had one of the most advanced information systems in the world, his travels and 'research' were mostly fronts in order for him to contact people. His house was riddled with trapdoors, secret passages, rooms, and panels. Even some of the books in his library were written in code. Naruto, as Jiraiya's apprentice had more access to this information than most people, other than Tsunade, but even he didn't know everything that that old man knew. Sometimes Naruto thought that Jiraiya might have really been the most powerful ninja in the world, but when he was being beat up by an angry Tsunade, or giggling like a little girl over something that Naruto really didn't want to know about, he wondered just how fine the line between genius and insanity really was.

"So, is there anything you need to tell us?" Naruto asked in a would-be innocent way.

Jiraiya leaned against the table and rested his elbows on it while he put his chin on the laced fingers of his hands.

"Did you give Kakashi the letter?" he asked.

Tsunade glared over at him, but didn't say anything.

"Yes, he said that he was prepared to meet you at the Exams," Naruto reported.

"Excellent," He said, "Everything's going according to plan."

Even Tsunade smiled a little.

"What plan is this?" Hinata asked.

"Even though it was without my permission, you did very well in Wave," Tsunade began, "Well enough, I think, to participate in this mission. Before I begin, I have to tell you that if we were a village, this would be classified as an A, possibly S-rank, mission."

"So tell us," Sasuke said leaning forwards, "I'm interested."

"S-rank," Sakura breathed with a little bit of awe in her voice.

"You're sure that we're ready?" Hinata asked.

"You're going to return to Konoha," Jiraiya told them, "under the disguise that Hideki has provided us with. You will participate in the Exams and appear to be normal Genin, but while you are there, you will get in contact with Kakashi's group, they call themselves Kinen, and they've been told to be on the lookout for you. You will act as my representatives until Tsunade and I arrive."

"And what's the mission?" Kimimaro was leaning forward so much that Naruto was amazed that he hadn't fallen out of his chair by this time.

"This is an assassination mission," Tsunade said, "Its official name is Requiem."

"Who's the target?" Sasuke asked, his eyes almost gleaming, with anticipation and hope.

"The target very rarely, almost never, comes out in public," Jiraiya continued, acting like he hadn't heard Sasuke's question, "during the few speeches that he makes yearly, he's so heavily guarded by ROOT that it would be impossible to reach him, but during the Chuunin Exams, he will have to appear in public and ROOT will be busy keeping tabs on the participants. He will be guarded by Jounin for the first time in almost five years, and he himself will have to be unarmed, or at least sparingly armed, lest he draw attention to himself. I believe that the victim has grown slightly complacent."

"What will our job be specifically?" Naruto asked.

"To make it to the final round, and when the signal is given, to help Kinen dispose of the ROOT ninja and any other threats. Tsunade and I will dispose of the target. We both feel as if it is our duty to Sarutobi-sensei to perform this ourselves," Jiraiya's eyes were rather cold as he said this. "We will not allow ourselves to be recognized, and after Danzou is dead, we will reappear in Konoha, ready to defend it against any enemies who may attack it in its weakness. After things have stabilized, you will appear, as your true selves, hidden away by us since we found you, and you will reveal the true story behind the assassination by Iwa. People won't believe you at first, but with the help of Kinen, who have some rather powerful members, they should grow to believe you. Kumo will probably be happy to sue for peace, it lost a lot when it sided with Iwa and there are plenty of hostages still in Konoha. Kiri is still recovering, so I doubt there will be much trouble from it, and Suna is slightly afraid of us."

"There's a lot of room for error," Hinata pointed out.

"Yes," Tsunade agreed, "but I suppose that we have to take a chance. Besides, Danzou is expecting a large number of ROOT recruits to enter the main force next year. This may be the only time that this is possible."

Hinata still looked worried, but the rest, even Gaara and Kimimaro who had nothing to do with Konoha, were looking excited.

Naruto felt his heart pounding in his chest. He was going back. The first time it was mentioned, Naruto had been almost numb to the idea, but suddenly it was real. Memories sprang to mind and Naruto wondered for the millionth time how much had changed. He was going to find out, he realized. He was going to see what had happened to everyone. This had to have been a really big deal for the others too. Sasuke was going to see his family again, and Naruto hoped that he could talk to his brother a little. Sakura would see her parents again, and Neji and Hinata might see family members.

They were coming back, and they were going to get revenge.

"When do we leave?" Naruto asked.

* * *

In an unknown location, carefully hidden from the rest of the world, a figure sat reading through files. He would glance over each once, write down the names and their abilities, and go on to the next one. The others of his group considered him slightly strange to volunteer to do this job, which they dreaded, but left him alone. They were all somewhat disconcerted by the man, though they never would have admitted it.

He picked up another file and stopped, staring at the picture and looking at the name.

A small smile formed on his mouth, and for a moment triumph appeared in his eyes.

"I've found you,"

* * *

In another location, another man waited impatiently, hooded and cloaked, for the spy he knew was coming. He was irritated that he had to come to this forest location, and the perpetual headache that he had was worse today then usual.

He snarled a little but composed himself.

His spy would do best to appear soon if he valued his life. He wasn't that important, and truthfully, the man had always had a suspicion that his spy wasn't as loyal as he pretended to be. His plans had to be accomplished now!

Some part of his mind, probably where the headache came from, seemed to be asking why it was so necessary, but the man shoved the thoughts aside. It had to be accomplished as soon as possible.

It was his propose.

The man sensed the presence of someone coming closer and waited. A few minutes later, a younger man was kneeling before the first.

"My lord, all preparations have been made," the newcomer said softly, "Everything will be ready by the time you have requested. And our allies?"

The man smirked, "Fools. They haven't even figured out what's happened. I just had to stroke their egos a little."

The newcomer nodded once.

"Are there any other orders?" he asked in a completely neutral voice.

"Proceed as planned. Make sure that any interference is dealt with in a way that looks accidental."

"Hai," the newcomer said.

"Don't disappoint me," the man cautioned, "I will come soon, and when I do, I wish to see that nothing has been left unaccounted for."

"Everything has been predicted, victory is assured,"

The man smirked, ignoring the fact that the headache was worse than ever.

"Perfect,"

* * *

Another man sat at his desk staring at the window of his office as he waited for someone he knew would come. Every one of his coworkers was under the impression that he was simply working late. He smiled coldly, so different from how he had before…the incident, before he had lost his faith, and before his heart had all but turned to stone. Other than to the few people he actually trusted now.

He would never forgive that man.

"You're still here?" an amused feminine voice asked.

"I said I would be," the man responded.

"Yeah, but I guess I didn't really believe you," the woman who had appeared shrugged, "Most people would have left by this time. He's just got back, I swear if he was any slower about it he'd be going backwards, and handed in his report. We've got word to get ready. They're coming."

The man nodded, "Excellent,"

The woman cocked her head, "You know, I think I liked you better when you were a softie. Now you remind me too much of me."

"I still like my job and the people in our organization," the man said defensively, his entire manner changing to a more passively gentle one, "I just don't like one person."

"Yeah, but now you've got split personalities, and it's deeply freaky," the woman shock her head, "Anyways, we've got lots of work to do if we're going to get this right. Oh, we also have some people who will be attending the Exams. He said that you'll know them when you see them. Can't imagine what that twit is talking about though. I think he's amused about something."

The man laughed, but his manner went cold immediately, "I'll keep my eye out."

"You do that," the woman said, looking like she was about to leave, "oh, and get some rest, you look like something Sensei dragged in."

"I know, I will," the man said, "I'll sleep a lot better now."

The woman disappeared and the man looked out the window again. Everything was perfect. The man in the building he was looking at had no idea what was about to unfold right under his feet.

_You'll pay,_ the man thought, _You'll pay for turning him into an excuse for going to war, and never really looking for them and not really caring what happened. I won't forgive you. I won't let go until I know what happened to them…to him._

* * *

**Omake:** Gamabunta

Seven-year-old Naruto stared with amazement at the sheer mass of the great toad boss, Gamabunta. The toad had just been summoned by Jiraiya, who was suddenly missing.

Gamabunta turned his head from side to side, as it looking for something, and then hopped around to face Naruto, but didn't seem to see him.

"Jiraiya!" he bellowed, "Where the-" he noticed Naruto and his age, "HECK am I? I told you to never summon me again, you filthy pervert! And who's the kid? There's no way you're going to tell me that this baby summoned me. I may have been born at night, but it wasn't _last night_!"

There was a 'meeping' noise in one of the bushes, and a voice, "Jiraiya was hoping that you had forgotten about the incident in Kumo…"

"I will never forget!" the toad bellowed, "That girl was eyeing me! Then you had to start going at her! 'Do you like pasta, cause you have angel hair!?' what kind of a pickup line is that! She would have been all over me, but you had to go ruin it!"

Jiraiya took that opportunity to run as the monstrous toad began to go after him, howling about revenge and honor.

Suffice it to say, Naruto had to wait until Jiraiya had been punished appropriately by Gamabunta before Naruto was able to have a conversation with him.

_

* * *

_

_Alright, so ends the Wave Arc, and so begins my Chuunin Exam Arc. Kudos for the people who can guess who each of the people were. I'm looking forward to this next chapter. A lot of you have been wondering just what's been going on in Konoha, well, you're about to find out!_

_Additional Notes:_

_Kisame: Yes, his name means Demon Shark. Easy to see how he came by it._

_Ninja Puffs: I'm sorry, but I find it funny. It's probably going to be a running gag throughout this story…_

_Zabuza: While a lot of stories that spare him have a tendency to make him 'go soft' pretty fast, I don't think that it really makes sense. Zabuza doesn't have a real reason to join Konoha in most stories, he just does. I think that he should have some kind of motivation. Zabuza is an anti-hero in a way, he has some decent qualities, like his fatherly actions toward Haku at some points, but he's also a sadist at times. I'm trying to stay true to that personality._

_Translations_

_Urusai: Shut up; it also means 'Shoo' if used when speaking to insects. It can also be used to mean 'annoying'. (Wow, they get so much mileage out a word.)_

_Kinen: Memory or commemoration. It can also mean prayer._

_See you next chapter!_


	14. Part 2: Return

_Author's Corner: Yes, we're here! I know a lot of you are more excited than others. On a slightly more serious note, I'm going to have to use a few original characters in this arc. Mostly because there have been a few gaps left. These OC's are going to be very minor. They're not even going to be as big antagonists as Yumi._

_Congratulations to those who guessed the identities of the people. You know who you are!_

_Thanks to Ibby-kun (MegaB) for betaing for me._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra does not own Naruto. If she did, the manga wouldn't drag on the way it does, but it would probably move too fast._

_As a little help, here the list of names and aliases again._

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**I hear someone's voice from far away,**_

_**One after another, warriors prepare for battle**_

_**On a street that only comes back. **_

_**Forget about being prepared. Are you ready?**_

_**My body shivers straight to the core**_

_**The energy rings out like a violent stomping**_

_**It calls me, always growing, never dying out**_

_**This unstoppable comeback story.**_

_**Come on, everybody stand up!**_

_**Stand up, today's your best shot!**_

_**No one can catch you speed hunter!**_

_**Everyone come back now, YEAH!**_

_**Come on, everybody, hands up!**_

_**Tomorrow is our hero's come back!**_

_**Raise up your hands and count down!**_

_**Let's go, 3-2-1 MAKE SOME NOISE!**_

_**Hey, yo whoa. You ready to deal with all the risks?**_

_**You gotta get up no matter how many times you fall!**_

_**Only a paper-thin truce keeps our bond intact, **_

_**Those feelings have built up and solidified. **_

_**The tide of rising cheers will give you courage.**_

_**You'll suffer now as you stand back up.**_

_**But I know you'll end up smiling!**_

_**Push it all away, and feel the thrill of victory!**_

_**Everybody stand up!**_

_**Stand up, today's your best shot!**_

_**No one can catch you speed hunter!**_

_**Everyone come back now, YEAH!**_

_**Come on, everybody hands up!**_

_**Tomorrow is our hero's come back!**_

_**Raise up your hands and count down!**_

_**Let's go, 3-2-1 MAKE SOME NOISE!**_

-_**Hero's Come Back (translation) by nobodyknows**_

The village of Konoha didn't look like it had changed all that much on the outside from the day, five years ago, when six frightened children escaped in the dead of night. The large, imposing gates still stood, and the same symbols were painted on them. The surrounding forest didn't seem even slightly different, but then again, Naruto hadn't really had that much time to see them.

Naruto readjusted his new Kusa hitai-ite for the one-hundredth time nervously. He was not at all used to the weight and it had a way of wanting to slide down his face.

He was wearing a grayish blue jacket over a dark orange shirt, and dark pants along with black combat sandals. All of these clothes had been assigned to him by the client, along with everyone else's. Naruto wished he could have used a genjutsu to cover up his whiskers, but had already decided to tell anyone who stared at them that they were tattoos. It had been a very long time since he had left, and few people had really looked at him; they were too busy devotedly ignoring him.

Sasuke wore his hitai-ite the same way as Naruto, and had found a pair of dark pants and a navy turtle neck shirt to wear. He had bandages along his arms, but had, thankfully not found any arm warmers. He seemed pleased that this time their disguise was as a real ninja. He didn't have to worry about a disguise. As long as he didn't activate the Sharingan in the middle of a battle, most people would just assume that he was related to Sai.

Kimimaro was wearing his hitai-ite around his neck. He was wearing a loose white shirt and dark blue pants. Looser clothing made it easier for him to use his kekkei genkai, and he hadn't bothered to hide much of anything. No one would have a clue who he was. even if he took out his whole skeleton.

Hinata had placed the genjustu that made her eyes look brown in place about three hours back. Her hitai-ite was around her neck and she was wearing a white sleeveless shirt with long tan shorts. Her arms and legs were bound by bandages and the back of her shorts was a long white square of fabric that went down to her ankles. Naruto thought that it was kind of cool, in a very odd way.

Sakura had found a red battle kimono with a gold flame pattern that she had immediately picked out. She was proudly wearing her hitai-ite as a headband, to show off her forehead. Naruto had told her not to be so obvious, people might remember her, but Sakura had ignored him and said that she wouldn't jeopardize the mission.

Gaara was still wearing his gourd, and he had found a red and grey coat to wear over black pants that made him look fairly intimidating. Then again, Gaara had a knack for looking intimidating when he wanted to. He had wrapped his hitai-ite around his gourd, but it was almost impossible to see.

Neji was wearing close to the same off-white shirt and brown pants that he had worn in Wave. Actually, he and Sai were the only ones who had done that. He wore his hitai-ite on his forehead, but didn't really seem to care too much about where it would go, since, according to him, they would have to get rid of them anyway. Naruto had to admit that he really did have a good point.

Sai was still in his black outfit. He really seemed to like it, and due to either lack of originality or lack of caring, his hitai-ite was also one his forehead.

Haku was wearing a teal colored robe, over a brown sweater with a lighter brown sash as a belt. His pants, which seemed to be the same color and material as the sweater, went down past his knees. His hair was tied back into a bun, covered by a piece of cloth, and tied with a piece of teal-colored rope, and he still looked like he really could have passed for a girl. Naruto said nothing about this, since it was a fairly touchy subject.

Zabuza was almost completely unrecognizable. It was amazing just what wearing the traditional Jounin uniform, taking off his face mask, and hiding his sword could do. He wasn't all happy with the changes or his new name, but he was willing to put up with it, if only to avoid ever owing Hakumei anything in the future.

The gates to Konoha were closed, which was strange. Naruto couldn't remember a single time when the gates had been closed past nightfall. Naruto remembered Iruka-sensei had once told him about the gates only being closed when there was an attack or a threat, and worry began to rise in him. Had they already been found out?

There were a large group of people waiting outside the gate, looking like they had spent the night there. Hakumei edged up close to a trio about their age, who were hanging around. It was comprised of one boy and two girls, which was a rarity in the ninja world, and the three turned around to look at them as they approached.

"Chuunin Exams?" the boy, who was wearing a black suit, with a cat-eared hood and what looked like war paint on his face.

"Yeah," Kimimaro said.

"Well, that makes all of us," a girl wearing a light purplish dress, what looked like four pigtails in her blonde hair, and something that looked kind of like a club, but might not be grumbled, looking cross, "There have been people waiting here since yesterday. They only open the gates for about four hours, and if you didn't happen to get there in time, you wait."

For the first time she looked them over with interest.

"You're Grass nin?" she asked in a mildly interested, but mildly condescending tone.

"Yeah," Sakura said, looking like she was trying not to take an instant dislike to the girl, "I'm Emi."

"I'm Temari," the girl said, "This is my little brother Kankuro and Matsuri. We're from Suna."

The other girl, with brown hair that hung limply to her shoulders, bowed a little. She was wearing a green skirt and a dark shirt that showed her shoulders. On the whole, Naruto didn't think that he had met a more insecure looking person unless it was Hinata before she had become a member of Hakumei.

"It's nice to meet you," she said shyly.

Naruto noticed Gaara's eyes widened just a little. That made sense; he probably would know them from his childhood.

They all introduced themselves, mostly talking out of boredom and the common ground of all being foreign, young, and having their first Exam.

"When will they be opening the doors?" Hinata asked.

"Who knows," Kankuro shrugged and leaned forwards conspiratorially, "I hear that they'll take you up to see their torture and interrogation specialist to make sure we're not spies before we get our passport into Konoha."

Sasuke looked skeptical, "If they did that, no one would sign up."

Sai nodded, "No one's that suicidal."

Before Kankuro could say anything else, the gates opened to show an annoyed looking Chuunin with short, black hair that spiked a little at the back, dark eyes, and a perpetual frown.

"That's my cousin, Uchiha Hiro," Sasuke hissed to Naruto.

"All of you, show your identification," Hiro said, glaring around at them, "If it is verified, you will be given a visa that always traverse within the civilian sector of Konoha, you all have a room at one of the inns here, and you will be permitted to look around the civilian sectors all you like until Chuunin Exam day, which is in two days from now."

Naruto took in this information, feeling strange. They had never had permits or anything else like that before. While Naruto hadn't paid any more attention to Konoha's laws or rulings than any other six year old, he had never heard of a civilian sector or anything else like what Hiro was talking about. This was all new to him.

The check was highly humiliating. They were lined up, asked to produce their passports, and looked at suspiciously for about three minutes. Temari was very impatient when Matsuri's turn came.

"Oh, come on," she grumbled, "She's just here to fill out this team, how suspicious can she be? I mean she's deathly afraid of weapons, squeamish, and can't manipulate chakra to save her life. Let's get a move on!"

Hiro gave her a bored look, and continued, moving slightly slower, probably just to spite her. When they left, Kankoro waved cheerfully at them and called "We'll crush you in the exams," in the same way that most people would have said 'we'll see you in the exams.'

When he came to Hakumei he kept them for at least fifteen minutes because all nine of them had no last names, and Zabuza, or "Kenshin Honda", had to show a tremendous amount of proof of the fact that thet were orphans from Kusa that Naruto was very glad that they were masquerading as Grass nin with Kusa's permission. If they didn't, they would have been caught before setting foot in the city.

After an agonizing few minutes in which all of them were probably certain that they would be caught just because of their facial expressions, they were allowed into Konoha. Apparently everyone looked guilty when they were checked.

"Remember, stay in the civilian section," Hiro warned them, "If you're caught in the ninja sector, you'll be dealt with as spies."

Zabuza growled something under his breath that might have been, "and I'll use your intestines to strangle you" but might have also been "Thank you, have a nice day."

Naruto was betting on the first one.

Hakumei was the last group to be accepted in, and the doors slammed shut behind them.

For the first time in almost six years, Naruto looked at his home town. At first, it didn't seem like much had changed. The Hokage building and Monument were still in the same place, the buildings hadn't changed much, if at all, and the smell in the air was almost the same. But then Naruto realized just how much had really changed.

Danzou's face now looked out from the Hokage Monument, glaring at everyone with his one eye. Naruto noticed that all the ninja, including Genin were wearing the standard uniform, and Naruto wondered if the Genin just wore normal clothes on missions or something, and he realized just how many Uchihas were hanging around. They were everywhere. Naruto recognized them by the crest at the back of their shirts, and the scowl on all of their faces. Not one of them looked younger than twenty. ROOT seemed everywhere too. When Naruto was younger, it was really rare to actually see the ANBU when they were on duty, they prided themselves with never being seen, but ROOT was obvious, almost as if they were intimidating people. The civilians were different too. Naruto was used to looks of cold hatred or indifference, but this was nothing like those. The eyes of almost everyone who looked at them were filled with fear. They looked like they were afraid that Naruto would just go nuts and attack for no reason.

Naruto found himself being jostled about by the crowd, and was so lost in his own thoughts, that he didn't notice that he was separated from the others until he had walked down several streets.

Sasuke was also lost in his own thoughts as he walked. It was the first time that he had seen anyone from his large clan in a very long time and for the first time it really occurred to him that he might see his family again. Yes, he had thought of that before, but the meaning and ramifications hadn't really come up until that moment.

What would happen if he met his mother or Itachi?

Sasuke was certain that either of them would recognize him. Itachi might not say anything. He had allowed them to escape and obviously hadn't told anyone, but his mother would want an explanation. He would have to avoid her.

Sasuke looked up to ask Naruto a question, only to realize that he was alone. He muttered something that he had learned from Zabuza under his breath and tried to catch his bearings. The large building in front of him with the Uchiha crest on it made him know exactly where he was.

Of course, without thinking, he had started walking towards one of the two places he was thinking about most.

Sasuke knew that he should probably leave, but he found himself sitting on one of the benches facing the station. He hadn't seen it since what seemed like an eternity ago, when he had sprained his ankle training with Itachi. Now looking at it again, he had to smile a little at the memory. It had been a long time since he had hurt himself training. It had been even longer since he'd even seen his brother.

He wondered if Itachi worked from the Military Police now, since the ANBU was gone. Maybe he would help them, but he probably shouldn't try to make contact with him.

Sasuke stood up to head for the hotel, and then realized that Hiro, always trying to act cool and half the time forgetting important things, hadn't remembered to tell them where they were staying.

Sasuke tried out a few creative new words that he had learned from Zabuza and started to think of all the hotels that he knew.

"What are you doing here?" a female voice that sounded more then a little unfriendly asked.

Sasuke looked up at almost allowed himself to start or look surprised.

Uchiha Mikoto stood, watching him with a disdainful, expression, carrying something that looked like it was someone's lunch. She looked a little older than Sasuke remembered, and the expression on her face shocked him the most. He had never seen his mother without a soft look in her eyes, but now they were like to pieces of obsidian: cold and completely uncaring.

A horrible realization came to Sasuke; adults didn't usually change much over time. Their personalities were very set. His mother had probably always been like this to non-Uchihas.

What was even worse was that she didn't recognize him.

"Well?" Mikoto asked, narrowing her eyes.

"I guess I got lost looking for the hotel," Sasuke managed out.

"Let me see your passport," Mikoto commanded, walking up to him and holding out her hand expectantly.

Sasuke took out his passport and handed it to her, feeling slightly sick. Mikoto looked at it almost as if looking to see a forgery.

"I see, Masaru from Kusa," Mikoto said coldly, "You should have received a map indicating where to go. The hotel is in the center of the market. If you retrace your steps and go to the left, you will eventually reach the market place. The hotel has a large amount of balloons in the front and a sign welcoming the foreign exam participants."

Sasuke couldn't help but hear the bite in her voice when she said 'foreign'.

"Thank you," Sasuke said, bowing politely, and wanting to throw up.

"Hn," was the only answer that Sasuke received.

Mikoto watched Sasuke as he disappeared down the street, but turned around and didn't see him rush into some bushes and relieve his stomach of his breakfast.

That was his family? Yes, he had been angry that they had ignored him, but showing them that they were wrong and eventually rejoining the clan had always been Sasuke's eventual plan. Now he didn't feel so sure. His mother's eyes were etched in his memory as being cold, and completely uncaring.

"Aniki," Sasuke breathed, "Are you the same?"

Sasuke was sure of one thing; he didn't want to see anything more of his family until he had had time to think.

Uchiha Fugaku had watched the boy for a while until his wife had appeared and shooed him off. He had been a Grass nin with dark hair, and vaguely he realized that Sasuke would have been about his age now.

Sasuke. That name brought up so much annoyance in him. He was the cause of Fugaku's dishonor, and even though Fugaku knew that it was stupid to blame a six year old, who was probably dead now anyway, he couldn't help it.

The night Sasuke left, his room had been clean, some clothes packed and money gone. The little brat had run away, only to get kidnapped by Iwa, and Fugaku was short one son. While that was bad enough, it had not been total dishonor. That had come from his older son.

Itachi was born calm. He had never cried, only making soft mewling noises when he was hungry, and had figured out how to talk much earlier then most other children. Fugaku had known a genius when he saw one, and he was thrilled to have one as his heir. He supposed that he had pushed Itachi a little too hard by sending him into that battle; Itachi stopped smiling almost completely after that.

Before Sasuke was born, Itachi had not smiled at all.

Sasuke.

It was traditional for Uchiha brothers to be on bad terms with one another. Only the great Madara had ever seemed to get along with his brother, and that had probably been a ruse of some kind. Fugaku himself had to be restrained when his younger brother had been born or he would have killed him. Fugaku had kept that in mind at Sasuke's birth, making sure that there were some of the older Uchiha there to keep the five year old Itachi out of the room where Sasuke was born. After all, if he had almost killed his brother, Itachi might succeed.

When he had taken his crying son from his wife, Fugaku had been disappointed that he had not been calm like Itachi had been, but reminded himself that it was rare enough to have one genius, and the boy was healthy. The shock was when someone carefully managed to take Sasuke away from him when he was thinking those things.

Fugaku had turned around to see Itachi, who had somehow made it past all the guards, holding his new brother, looking like he was studying him, almost unsure of how to react. Some of his hair fell into Sasuke's face, and the infant began to try to eat it.

Slowly, a smile formed on Itachi's face as he brushed the hair away, two fingers accidentally pressing against Sasuke's forehead.

"Hello, Sasuke," Itachi said softly.

Sasuke, as to be expected, said nothing.

It was difficult to wrest Sasuke from his older brother's clutches, and after that, Itachi seemed to always be around Sasuke, even when they got older. Most of the time older siblings seemed to be allergic to their younger siblings, but Itachi seemed to take time out of his day to play with Sasuke. After a while, Fugaku began to realize that Sasuke was the only person in the family that Itachi actually seemed to have any feelings toward. He had accepted his arranged betrothal, and would hang around Shisui, but there was always a distance between him and anyone else.

When Sasuke had been kidnapped, Itachi's only bond to the family had snapped, and Itachi had gone. Probably to look for Sasuke or take revenge on Iwa personally.

Itachi had disappeared off the face of the earth, and it was all Sasuke's fault.

Now Fugaku had no heir, and all attempts had been in vain.

Actually, there had been no children born since Sasuke, and some of the lesser clans were starting to whisper about the Uchihas being cursed.

The door opened and Mikoto came in carrying Fugaku's lunch.

"You got rid of the Grass Genin?" he asked.

"Yes," Mikoto said, "Honestly, I don't know why Danzou-sama even allows them to come here. You've been working on that plan for two days now, haven't you?"

"Three," Fugaku grunted.

"That would be unnecessary if there were no foreign Genin permitted at our Exam," Mikoto sniffed.

"Yes, but we would never see what these Genin, who might later become Jounin are capable of," Fugaku told her, "All of the work for this plan is nothing."

Neji looked around for the others, but couldn't see any sign of them. Blasted crowds, he thought, they were probably completely separated now. What was more annoying was that the guard didn't seem to have the presence of mind to tell them where the hotel was; he was too busy intimidating them.

Neji resisted the urge to use the Byakugan to see if he could find them. Anyone here would know that kekkei genkai on sight, and they would wonder just who he was, and ask questions that were better left unanswered. Neji looked around one final time and started to walk again. There was no way he would find anyone in this crowd, and perhaps if he found the hotel, the others would eventually find him.

It took Neji about three turns into unfamiliar looking places for him to realize that he was lost. Truthfully, it wasn't completely a strange thing. Neji and Hinata had seldom been allowed to leave the Hyuuga Compound when they were very young, and they had almost never been allowed to explore. While Naruto or Sakura would probably have a good memory of the place, and Sasuke might have some memories, he and Hinata would be lost.

The place he was in wasn't anywhere near the Hyuuga Compound either. He was in a park or something like one, and as Neji looked around, he began to recognize the place. That playground…the bushes…they were taller now… This was the place where the Sandaime had been murdered. Neji was surprised that there hadn't been something to commemorate it. Neji looked around; this place had been a part of so many dreams and talks. It had changed his life.

It was strange how now; it didn't look that different than the many other play grounds he was used to.

Neji noticed that there was someone else coming towards him, but paid no attention until he realized that whoever it was seemed to be about to attack him. They were running towards him, and had jumped in the air to land a kick.

Neji jumped back, prepared to fight back, but all thoughts of defense stopped when he saw his attacker.

It was easily the strangest person that he had ever seen. He was wearing what looked like a bright green jumpsuit of some material that did nothing to flatter him, and his hair was in a very shiny looking bowl-cut. What really caught Neji's attention were his eyes and eyebrows. Tsunade had always told them not to judge by appearance, but Neji decided that there were two options for this person: either he was the greatest genius he had ever seen for using such strange things to make people underestimate him, or he was completely insane.

"Enemy ninja," the person, Neji realized he was about Neji's age, said, striking a pose, "I will defend the city against your attack as the Beautiful Blue Beast of Konoha.

Neji wondered just what about this person was blue, or beautiful.

"…I'm here for the Exams…" Neji said in his 'talking to idiots' voice, "I'm not attacking Konoha."

Yet.

The green jumpsuit clad boy began bowing from the waist repeatedly.

"Gomenasai, gomenasai, gomenasai," the boy said, bowing with every 'gomenasai', "I had no idea that you were one of the participants in the Chuunin Exams. I simply saw you and the fact that you had a foreign hitai-ite, and I jumped to the wrong conclusion."

"…Well, mistakes happen," was all that Neji could think of saying.

"Such youthful words!" the boy cried, "You inspire me! I will perform three hundred pushups!"

Neji once again wondered if this person was insane or a genius.

"So I suppose I'll face you in the Exams?" Neji asked.

It looked like the boy would start crying.

"Oh, Gai-sensei, you would be so proud!" the boy cried, "To have a true ninja see me, a lowly civilian as an equal! I, Rock Lee, declare you my friend and eternal rival! One day, when I am recognized as a ninja by Konoha, we will fight as other rivals have done before us! Tell me your name, oh Eternal Rival!"

This was a turn of events that Neji had no anticipated or ever dreamed would happen.

Lee had already embraced him, declaring some kind of friendship rivalry that sounded faintly disgusting and repeating his request for Neji's name.

"I go by Haru," Neji told him, "Just Haru, I'm an orphan."

Lee leapt to embrace Neji again, but this time, he dodged.

"Look, will you just tell me where to find that hotel where the Chuunin Exam participants are staying?" Neji asked, losing his cool.

"Of course, Haru, my Eternal Rival!" Lee crowed.

Neji didn't know it then, but he had probably met his best friend.

"Well, at least we didn't get separated from one another," Sakura signed, "I forgot how crowded Konoha was."

"I didn't really know," Hinata admitted, "Do you know where we are?"

"The marketplace," Sakura looked around, "My aunt always used to take me shopping here before…"

Sakura trailed off and looked at the ground.

"Do you want to see them?" Hinata asked, "We could, and I'm sure we could do it without anyone seeing us…"

Sakura opened her mouth and closed it again, and she closed her eyes and sighed a little.

"No," she said, "I don't think that I should. I want to see them again, when I can tell them everything, when they can know I'm their daughter…not when they don't even know me, and not when I'm…well…"

She pointed to her hitai-ite.

Hinata nodded.

"I understand," she said. "Don't worry. You'll see them again, and when you do it'll be when our problems are gone. You'll probably have to introduce him to them though…"

Hinata was smiling a little and Sakura blushed, glaring at her friend.

"Emi! Rei!" Both girls saw Neji coming towards them with the strangest looking person either girl had ever seen.

"Ano…Haru…who's that?" Hinata asked, looking very unsure.

"This is…" Neji began, looking like he was thinking about just how to explain this.

"I am the Beautiful Blue Beast of Konoha, Rock Lee!" the decidedly green clad boy said, grinning at Sakura, "and you, fair maiden, are the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen. It is a shame that you are a ninja from Kusa, and I a lowly civilian, for our love can never be…"

Sakura looked over at Neji at Hinata in a way that asked, "This is a human being, right?" and smiled a little nervously at Lee.

"Well, I suppose there are other girls and other guys in the world…" she said awkwardly.

"Spoken like a true maiden in the springtime of youth!" Lee shouted.

"Does he do this often," Hinata whispered to Neji.

"Apparently, all the time," Neji hissed back.

"Well, he's interesting," Hinata shrugged.

"You're sure?" Sai asked, looking very interested, "It's been a while, you could be wrong…"

"I would know my own siblings," Gaara shook his head, "Those were them. I vaguely remember the girl, Matsuri. She was usually sitting alone like me, and the other kids teased her a lot. She left Suna before I left. I think her parents went out on an extended mission."

"Your siblings didn't recognize you," Kimimaro pointed out, "Do you think that they were just hiding it?"

"My siblings and I didn't see each other too often," Gaara sighed, "It's really unlikely that they would know me at all."

"I'm sorry, Shinta," Haku said quietly, "It really must be hard for you to have to face them. When this is all over…I'm sure you'll have a chance to talk to them."

"You're all disgusting, you know that?" Zabuza chipped in.

"Just because we don't attempt to disembowel one another at every opportunity doesn't make us disgusting," Sai pointed out, "It makes us somewhat normal."

"It's unnatural…" Zabuza growled.

"Not as unnatural as his lack of eyebrows…" Kimimaro muttered under his breath, which caused a few giggles, "Where are we anyway?"

"Why do you think I know?" Zabuza asked, sneering a little, maybe Sasuke should hypnotize him before the Exams, just so that he didn't end up starting a war between Kusa and Konoha.

"Didn't that guy give you a map?" Gaara asked innocently.

Zabuza blinked and searched his pockets.

"I'm going to kill him," Zabuza muttered.

"That would start a war," Haku pointed out.

"But it will make me feel so much better,"

Naruto tried to resist the pull on him, but failed miserably. The temptation was simply too much for him, the leader of Hakumei to resist. It had been so long since he had been faced with such a hard thing, and it might jeopardize the mission, but Naruto just couldn't say no. Besides, he was sure that he had time…

He entered Ichiraku Ramen.

Pushing the flap open, Naruto noticed that the place seemed a little more run down than it had when he had last been there, but the smell was just as intoxicating as it was all those years ago.

"Hello," Naruto called, "Anyone here?"

Teuchi, the old ramen chef's, head appeared almost immediately. He took in Naruto's headband, but didn't say anything other than: "You're a costumer?"

"Yep," Naruto nodded, "I want a double miso ramen. The works."

Ayame, the assistant and daughter of the owner poked her head out, and bit her lip.

"'Tou-san…" she hissed.

"Beggars can't be choosers," was the only reply.

Naruto could tell that they had fallen on very hard times. Before, they had seemed to so cheerful, but now, they looked like they just wanted him to pay and leave. When the steamy hot bowl was set in front of him, Naruto snapped his chopsticks apart reverently. At last, a bowl of Ichiraku ramen not that awful pre-made junk.

Naruto took a large bite and felt tears coming to his eyes.

"This is the best ramen in the history of ramen," he said, his eyes closed.

He really should have paid more attention to the fact that that had been one of his oldest expressions and one that both were very familiar with.

"Na..ru.." Ayame began her eyes wide.

"Oh, yeah," Naruto said, smiling, "I didn't introduce myself, I'm Taiki, just Taiki," I'm an orphan from Kusa."

"Taiki?" Teuchi asked, "Oh, yes, Kakashi-san mentioned that he thought that you were Kusa nin who would be coming for the Exams."

Naruto was really interested now, what was Kakashi doing…or…was…

"Really? I thought that we had done a pretty good job," Naruto smiled.

Further conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Sasuke. He must have seen the back of Naruto's shirt while he was passing by. Naruto cheerfully waved, but noticed that something was wrong. Sasuke's eyes were blank looking, almost unseeing, and he looked even paler than he usually did.

"Hey, Masaru, want some ramen," Naruto asked.

"…Not right now…" was all that Naruto could get out of Sasuke.

"Must be tired. He usually loves places like this," he told Teuchi and Ayame over Sasuke's glare.

"Yo, old man," Naruto was on guard the instant that he heard Kiba's voice, "We got you're stupid deliveries done. Pay up."

"Kiba, you should be more polite," Shino, oh, things were just getting better weren't they.

"At least pretend that you have dignity," Sasuke looked up and his eyes narrowed to slits.

"Hey…wait," Kiba noticed Naruto and Sasuke, "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING HERE!"

"Eating ramen," Naruto answered.

"And entering the Exams," Sasuke added, his eyes on Yumi.

"So, you're a ninja," Yumi said her gaze level.

"It's good to see you both again in good health," Shino said, bowing slightly, "And even better to know that my first assumption that you were all ninja was correct. I am slightly surprised that you are from Kusa as your style isn't familiar, but that may have to do with the fact that you're orphans, or are you perhaps originally from another region?"

Naruto looked hard at Shino. This guy was so creepy it wasn't even funny. Naruto had to wonder just what his other assumptions had been. Thankfully, both the others were ignoring Shino, which seemed normal. Kiba wasn't sure that he was happy or angry or surprised or what, and Yumi and Sasuke were off in their own private battle. Shino's question would have to remain unanswered.

"Well, it looks like we'll be competing against you if your sensei lets you in," Naruto said, trying to gloss over things.

"Who is your sensei anyways?" Kiba asked, "We never saw him… and what were you doing in Wave?"

"Classified," Naruto smirked, "We're being taught by Honda-sensei. He was busy with other things, and we were supposed to do the mission alone."

"You don't have to have a sensei!" Kiba always sobbed.

"Kusa is too small to have a student-sensei system like ours. Usually the sensei will teach up to three groups and even then, there are times when they are called away and the Genin are forced to complete missions on their own." Shino seemed really well informed.

"How do you know all this?" Kiba asked.

"He reads," Yumi said calmly, "it involves books and it is generally done to gain knowledge of things around you. I'm sure you've never heard of it before."

"I notice you didn't seem to know!" Kiba shot back.

"That's because, unlike Shino, I have no interest in being a walking book."

Shino did not seem to change visibly; in fact he had no reaction at all. At least, not visibly.

"Your bill," Teuchi said with a bright smile, placing a slip of paper on in front of him. At first Naruto didn't really understand. There was a bill, but something was writing under it.

_Hotel lobby. One o'clock. Wear uniforms. Someone will meet you._

Naruto's eyes flickered up to Teuchi, but he didn't show any reaction, he just fished out his wallet and took out the money. So, Teuchi was part of Kiren. That was something that Naruto hadn't expected. Then again, Naruto knew next to nothing about the old chef, other than the fact that he had been one of the only people who had treated him normally before he had left. For all Naruto knew, Teuchi was the leader of a secret organization who had decided to win Naruto's favor because of the Kyuubi. But really, it was kind of comforting to know that someone who he had cared for was going to help him now.

"Thanks a lot! Come again," Ayame called as Naruto paid and left, accompanied by Sasuke.

"See you soon," Naruto called back.

"There you are!" Naruto whirled around to see Zabuza, Gaara, and Sai, "You idiot! Pay attention next time you're in a crowd. I don't care what you were thinking about. Knowing your age group and the company you've kept it was something perverted. The next time you two do that, you're going to get a special 'training session'!"

"I don't see you doing any better," Sasuke grumbled, but he was still a little subdued, "Besides, I found out where the hotel was."

"Well, at least you did something useful," Zabuza admitted.

"Yes, Honda-sensei," Sasuke said with a smirk.

"And what were you doing?"

"Sampling Konoha ramen!" Naruto grinned.

"That's your sensei?!" Kiba exclaimed. He leaned close to Naruto, "He looks like a complete psychopath."

"He is," Naruto hissed back, for just a brief moment forgetting everything and going back to when he and Kiba had been friends.

"Well, it'll be interesting to see just how strong you really are," Yumi said, looking over Sasuke with a slight sneer.

"Yeah," Kiba agreed, "Kusa's reputed to be a bunch of pushovers."

"They may surprise you, Kiba," Shino cautioned, "They are ninja, and true ninja are taught to hide a great deal about themselves."

"Yeah, yeah," Kiba rolled his eyes.

"We'll see you soon, Masaru-san, Taiki-san," Shino said bowing, "By the way, Taiki-san, there was a spider very close to your ramen, why didn't you kill it?"

"…It wasn't hurting anyone," Naruto said almost instantly, "and I don't mind spiders as much as some people."

"…I see…" Shino said, "Good luck in the Exams…"

With that all three left, Kiba grumbling about Kakashi and some mission and lateness.

"That guy might have to be killed," Zabuza pointed out.

Naruto nodded, "But he was always kind of creepy, so that might just be him…"

"Anyway, let's get back," Sai cut in.

"What happened while you were separated?" Naruto hissed to Sasuke.

"I'll tell you later," was all that Naruto could get out of Sasuke.

Naruto looked at the Hokage Monument, and at Danzou's face. Everything was so different, yet similar. Like a distorted painting that someone had done, with only vague memories as a guide. This parody was the reality though, Naruto reminded himself, and tonight he was meeting his allies.

_Don't worry_, Naruto found himself thinking to the other four Hokages who, to Naruto's mind, looked unhappy about the new addition to their company, _We'll make things right. That's a promise of a lifetime!_

**Omake**: A Very Puffy Christmas

Everyone stared at the red and green Ninja Puffs that Tsunade had set in front of them. Slowly Sasuke poked them.

"What is this?" He asked apprehensively.

"A present," Tsunade replied, "now eat before I think better of it."

She glared at them all and left the room, muttering about ingrates and the amount of work she went through for them on a regular basis.

Slowly, like they were about to eat poison, they all moved the strange looking cereal to their mouths, and one by one their eyes widened with pleasure.

"This tastes like pork ramen and miso ramen! What a combination!" Naruto exclaimed happily.

"Mine is different," Sakura said, "The red ones are like strawberry ice cream and the green ones taste like wasabi!"

"That is disgusting," Neji pointed out, "My red ones taste like Oyakodon, and my green ones like Nori,"

"Boring," Sai said rolling his eyes, "Mine is a combo between apples and sausage, and it's a really interesting combination."

"Mine tastes like two of the dishes from back home," Gaara said smiling, "There's a curry I used to really like and a rice dish."

"I have two types of tomatoes," Sasuke smirked.

"Sushi and Sashimi!" Hinata smiled, "I love sushi and sashimi!"

"Mine is two different kinds of cheese," Kimimaro said with a very content smile, "it kind of melts when you eat it…I wonder if I can get it warm next time…"

"This tastes like a pancake dish I used to have…" Haku looked like he wasn't sure whether he was happy or not.

"Wait," Sasuke looked up, "She could have made them taste good anytime she wanted!"

"Of course." Jiraiya said, popping up, "She sometimes makes mine taste like…" He giggled a little, "Well, maybe I shouldn't say…"

Jiraiya scooted out, and for a second everyone stared at one another.

"I don't even want to know," Naruto said.

"Seconded," was then general response.

Sasuke never did forgive Tsunade for not making Ninja Puffs taste good all the time.

_Sorry for my late update. I had a combo of finals and the natural Christmas rush/visits. _

_Merry Belated Christmas or whatever it is you celebrate. I celebrate Christmas, and I refuse to say Seasons Greetings or any other such 'politically correct' term. They are technically religious holidays (I may be wrong about Kwanzaa), but even if someone personally is not religious doesn't give them the right to tell everyone they can't use the holiday's real name. Ok, my rant is over._

_As you can see, this chapter was mostly just revisiting Konoha and showing a few of the changes. There's going to be more of them later, but I wanted to have this chapter. Also, I thought that Sasuke needed to meet his family early on. I'm just getting started on the Uchiha clan, and I am by no means finished. I think that I enjoy portraying them like this a little too much, but it really makes sense for them to be the way I've showed them, looking at Sasuke's flashbacks. There was something seriously wrong with the clan._

_Shameless Advertising: MegaB's story: Konoha: Naruto's Playground. It has humor, drama, jumping off the Hokage Monument, suspense, and plot twisty goodness. Also, he updates faster than me. Go read it!_

_Temari and Kankuro: Ok, these two gave me some trouble, particularly Kankuro. I mean, he's got almost no characterization… Usually he's portrayed as a bit of a womanizer, or something else, but I really don't want to do it. As far as Temari, goes, she strikes me as being very impatient with girls who she'd see as weak. Look at how she treated Tenten. _

_Zabuza's name: Sorry, I just couldn't resist. I mean, doesn't he seem the type to want a name involving a sword?_

_Mikoto: Yes, I am the proud creator of the first evil Mikoto I've ever seen. I've noticed that in almost all fanfictions, she is described as the only Uchiha who is caring, or that she's just weak, but in life, I've seldom seen a husband do anything that was not with his wife's knowledge and full consent and encouragement. In other words: she was just as bad, if not worse, then Fugaku. Also, I never see her do anything that's all that kind to Sasuke. Telling a child 'oh you're father doesn't ignore you, you're imagining it' isn't all that kind. Trust me; I know._

_Sasuke's reaction: Well, what would you do if you realized your mum was for all practical purposes, your enemy who would kill you if given a chance?_

_Lee: Originally, I had planned on an 'evil Rock Lee', but I just couldn't go through with it, and then I realized that there was no way that Danzou would allow Lee to even be a ninja. Lee required special attention that a war machine like the one Danzou was building wouldn't be willing to give. And while Gai has obviously made Lee his 'project', he's not a ninja. I'll explain what's up with Gai meeting Lee later._

_Oyakodon: It's a rice dish with egg and chicken._

_Nori: Seaweed. Some people eat it for snacks_

_Wow, there were a lot of notes this chapter…_

_Review!_


	15. Part 2: Kinen

_Author's Corner: Once upon a time, there was princess named Pryotra who live in a far away land called Hickville and had a magical box. Pryotra would write stories in her box and other people who had boxes like hers would be able to read them and tell her what they thought. The princess brought happiness to many people and everyone was happy. _

_One day, an evil purple goblin, who lived in the basement of someone's house, eating a strange food known as 'Doritos' (AN: I like Doritos too, so I'm not bashing them) became angry at the happy world around him, and he made up a curse that would attack the magical boxes and bring misery to people. This purple goblin used his own magical box to curse the princess's box, making her unable to use her box. Pryotra, being reasonably intelligent, spoke to her father, who was a great wizard, and he summoned a troop of pixies to use their magical powers and remove the curse, but the curse had caused much trouble, and sometimes it wanted to come back. Finally, after hard work, the pixies were able to let the princess use her magical box again, now with only minimal trouble._

_Pryotra got to work right away, and sent out her newest chapter, much to the joy of the others who read her work._

_And they all lived happily ever after._

_To whoever caused that virus to attack my computer: Har, har, I am VERY amused._

_Thanks to MegaB (Ibby-kun) for betaing for me._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns no part of the manga or anime Naruto or anything associated with it. Although she does own Uchiha Yumi and the other original characters that appear in this story, she doesn't think that anyone wants them anyways._

_Once again, we have a list of names and aliases. _

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it." **_

_**-**__**Abraham Lincoln**_

_**

* * *

  
**_

Naruto and the others found Hinata, Sakura and Neji waiting for them outside the hotel. They hadn't seemed to have been waiting too long, or at least, that was what Hinata said. The other two looked more than a little put out at having to wait for the length of time that they had. After regrouping, they, not including Zabuza, who was busy sitting on the bed in his own room, polishing his sword, decided to hold a brief meeting in the room that the guys all shared.

Thankfully the groups from different villages were not placed together. That would have been a pain to work with and might have actually led to at least one war. Particularly with the interesting combinations of personalities that were likely to result. Naruto didn't really want to have Sai in a room with anyone who didn't know what to expect, or wasn't a saint.

"We're going to have to separate ourselves into groups of three," Neji said thoughtfully, "and it would probably be best to have one medic on each team."

Everyone nodded.

"Because Kimimaro, Neji, and I are the oldest," Haku suggested, "maybe we should go together. I mean, it would be more logical for real teams to be arranged by age. Also, since Tsunade always made us team up together we're used to working together."

"But Neji's younger than you," Gaara pointed out.

"We'll say that he was the replacement for another teammate," Kimimaro said, "…one that was tragically too injured to continue being a ninja. Judging by the fact that the Genin here seem to be pretty bloodthirsty I don't think it will be too pried into."

"It sounds like a good plan," Neji agreed, "Team Kekkei Genkai was always a good combination.

"Alright," Naruto nodded, "The rest of us…well, maybe we should go by skills, and I think we should go with the teams that Baa-chan always assigned us.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura, known as Team Dattebayo, much to Sasuke's annoyance and Sakura's amusement, were almost always teamed together in training. They were fighters that produced extremely powerful attacks, and seemed to work well in harmony with one another. Sai, Hinata, and Gaara, Team Shugo had also been paired up together. They were, in a way, more individual than Naruto's group, having vastly different attacks.

"Sounds good," Sai nodded.

Hinata looked faintly disappointed.

"So, we just wait till one, right?" Sasuke asked. They were refraining from saying too much, since even though they had looked for someone, there was always a chance of someone eavesdropping and learning something…dangerous.

"I guess we wait then," Sakura sighed. "I hate waiting."

"Well, there's nothing that we can do," Kimimaro shrugged, "other then maybe harass _Honda-sensei_ a little."

Sai grinned a little.

"Want to steal his sword?"

"And get your hands chopped off?" Neji cut in, "That man is insane."

"Neji-nii-san's right," Hinata agreed, "If you want to prank him, go ahead. It might be good for him, but don't touch that sword. I think he'll take it personally."

"I heard him talking to it in his sleep," Naruto grinned as he leaned forwards.

"You're joking," Neji laughed.

"He addresses it as 'her'," Sasuke added, taking a real interest in the conversation for the first time.

Sasuke had been extremely withdrawn since they had gotten back. Naruto didn't know why, but he had a good guess. He had met someone that he had known. Maybe even his brother, and the encounter hadn't been what Sasuke had expected or wanted. It must be hard for him, Naruto thought, leaving hadn't been that painful for him, even though he had missed Iruka and still did, since he had no real family to miss. Sasuke had had a family. Even if they hadn't really acted like it all the time, it must have been really hard for him.

"Well, well, well, I guess the superstition is true," Zabuza said, standing in the doorway, "I sneezed, and what did I find?"

"Well, you did call it 'her'," Sasuke pointed out.

"That's none of your business."

* * *

One in the morning took way too much time to come, in Naruto's opinion. Everyone went to bed, pretended to sleep, and waited for the right time to get ready. They had their uniforms carefully disguised as other clothes, tightly folded up, and placed in the bottom of the bags. All of them had been worried that their bags would be checked with the Sharingan or Byakugan, but that was the best that they could do on short notice, and thankfully, bags were not checked, if only to give the participants a sense of security.

Finally, at twelve forty-five, they prepared. It took little to no time to prepare. Uniforms on, and, just in case, armed to the teeth, they appeared in the lobby, clinging to the shadows. If anyone who they didn't know, or thought was a threat appeared, they were ready to attack. After all, one could never be too careful, and there was always a chance of betrayal or that someone in Kiren had been caught and interrogated.

As they waited, a figure appeared in the room.

"Alright, Naruto-kun, everyone, you can come out now," Kakashi called in his usual cheerful yet bored tone, "I know that you're all waiting to see if it's a trap. Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama really did teach you paranoia. Good."

"Killer Lamp Post," Naruto said, saying the first part of the password.

"Flesh Eating Teddy Bears," Kakashi responded, "Alright, you're sure it's me, now come out."

Slowly they stepped out from the corners and walls, and Sai allowed the ink that was covering him to recede.

"So, why did you want us to wear uniforms?" Sakura asked.

"Because that way, if we were seen, you can get away without being identified," was all that Kakashi said, and his voice took on a much more serious tone, "Follow me!"

With that, Kakashi led the way out the door, and jumped onto the roof.

"ROOT is busy in this area tonight. They've received word that there might be a spy monitoring the Chuunin Exams in the civilian sector, and they'll be checking there all night. There are some Jounin who are on watch, but…well…"

There was a crash and a shout from somewhere.

"…they're going to be a little busy, Anko-chan can be very…er…persistent when she wants to be."

"COME BACK HERE! IT WON'T HURT FOR TOO LONG!"

Sakura and Hinata looked at each other, but no words were said.

Kakashi led the way over the rooftops of Konoha, jumping from roof to roof with Hakumei right behind him. For a while it seemed like Kakashi was leading them nowhere, but after a while, Kakashi jumped down into a square formed by four apartment buildings. There were no windows facing the square, and there didn't seem to be anything there other than a porthole.

Kakashi calmly lifted it up, and motioned that he was going to go down first. The others followed him, as quietly as they could.

The porthole had a ladder that led down into a part of the sewers that Naruto, who had played there in the past, didn't recognize. It was darker, with less of the electric lights as the others, and something told him that this place wasn't used often, if it was still connected to the rest of the sewers at all. As they walked, the echoes of their footsteps reverberated around them and made the hair on the back of Naruto's neck stand up.

"There is no emotion," a sudden voice spoke harshly.

"Then there is no humanity," Kakashi responded.

As soon as he had spoken, another figure joined them, but Naruto couldn't see who it was.

"Sorry, Kakashi-san," the voice said, it was familiar, but Naruto couldn't put his finger on where he had heard it before, "but I thought that it might be a good idea to come before you reached the meeting room."

"I understand, you can never be too careful," Kakashi nodded.

"So, this is Hakumei?" the voice asked.

"Yes, I'll introduce them properly with the others," Kakashi responded, "Is Anko-chan back yet?"

"She wasn't there when I left, but she could have come back by know. I've been waiting for about a half hour."

Naruto listened with interest, but kept his mouth shut. He had a feeling that this wasn't the time for him to say anything. Jiraiya had constantly harped on him about learning to keep his big mouth shut when something important was going on, and it looked like, finally, some of his words had begun to stick.

The others were also quiet. Mostly out of the interest in the conversation. Naruto knew that they were hoping for someone to say something illuminating.

They finally reached a large door with plenty of traps around it, but most of them seemed to have been dismantled over the years.

"This used to be the place where Orochimaru preformed his experiments on human test subjects," Kakashi told them, "The Sandaime claimed to the council that he had completely destroyed it, but he was lying. I think that he had planned to one day come down here and investigate on his own. Something about Orochimaru's defection never seemed right to the Sandaime, but that's not important anymore. The point is that ROOT will not be down here looking for us. There's even a genjustu on this door usually, making it look like it's blocked up. It's amazing what some people can do…"

Kakashi opened the door and the figure walked in.

They were in a large room, lit by several old light bulbs; some of them were burned out. Much of the room was taken up by various pickled…things…floating in luminous liquids in jars. In the shadows of the room, there were many figures; all of them looked like they were apprehensive about being seen.

"Yo," Kakashi greeted the room, raising one hand, "I've brought Hakumei here."

"Are you sure that it's the real Hakumei?" a woman's voice asked.

"Yep," Kakashi nodded, "They answered the question right, and the Danzou doesn't know enough about them to impersonate them too well.

Almost immediately, more people than Naruto had thought could fit into the room appeared. They were all at least seventeen, and Chuunin or higher. Yet, with all the ninja in Konoha, Naruto found himself slightly disappointed that there weren't more people. While it was a big group, Naruto could tell why they needed all the help that they could get. They were outnumbered. Badly.

"So, Kakashi, this is the group that managed to fight you and the Demon of the Bloody Mist to a stand still," a woman's voice said, "But they're still mercenaries. How does old Jiraiya know they're loyal?"

The woman stepped up. She was around twenty-two, with purple hair and a brown trench coat. Under the coat there was armor that had been specifically designed to look as if it was light and flimsy. The skin colored cloth woven into the armor did nothing to make it look any more useful, but Naruto had a feeling that that armor was probably more covering than most of the things that the samurai wore.

"Oh, I have a very good reason to know that they're loyal, Anko-chan, and I'll show you," Kakashi said with a bright smile.

"What do you mean Kakashi-san," a man's voice asked, "How can you be completely sure that they're loyal?"

Kakashi smiled again.

"Allow me to introduce the individual members of Hakumei," he said, and Naruto now knew just what Kakashi was doing. "Sabaku no Gaara."

Gaara stepped forwards and removed his mask. He gazed around and smiled a little. They didn't know him at all, well that was fine.

"I am Gaara, formerly of Suna. I am also the Jinchuuriki for the Shakaku," He said, "I'm pleased to meet you and ask that when on a mission you refer to me as Sabaku."

"Haka no Kimimaro," Kakashi continued.

Slowly Kimimaro removed his mask and looked at everyone, smirking slightly.

"I was once known as Kaguya Kimimaro, but ask that you refer to me as Haka, and never by my family name."

"Shin'en no Sai,"

Sai took off his mask and smiled brightly.

"I don't have a last name, but I used to live in Konoha, even though none of you will have a clue who I am," He seemed to be enjoying this.

Everyone just sort of stared.

"Hara no Haku,"

Haku bowed and removed his mask.

"I was Akiyama Haku, from Water Country, but that is not important anymore. Please call me Hara when we are masked. I look forwards to working with all of you," He told them.

"Aw, he's so cute!" Anko smirked, "I wouldn't think you were dangerous if I didn't read the report!"

"I'm sorry, Kakashi-san," a cold voice stated, "But I fail to see just how these people have anything to do with Danzou, unless their families were killed during the war, but even then…"

The figure stepped forwards and Naruto almost let out a startled cry. It was Iruka. He didn't look much older than he had when Naruto had run away, at least, not physically. His eyes were completely different: they were cold and hard, yet…depressed.

"Be patient, Iruka-san," Kakashi smiled, "You'll see soon. I would like you all to meet the rest before you decide that they're not trustworthy."

"We never said that," Another woman spoke up, walking forwards. She was very pretty, with black hair and crimson eyes. She seemed to be wearing scrolls as clothing, "We just want to know why Jiraiya-sama spoke of them the way he did."

"You'll see, allow me to introduce, Nisshoku no Sakura," Kakashi continued.

Sakura took off her mask and looked around. She faced the blank stares and sighed a little, running one hand through her pink hair.

"Honestly, how many girls with hair like this do you see?" she grumbled, "I used to be Haruno Sakura."

"What!" a man asked, stepped up. He had long blonde hair that was tied back in a ponytail, "Haruno Sakura's dead. She was abducted and murdered by Iwa years ago!"

"Then I'm a really, really solid ghost," Sakura rolled her eyes.

"You know," a man leaning against the wall said thoughtfully, smoking a cigarette, "no one ever did find the bodies…"

"You mean…" Iruka's eyes looked hard at each of the members still with their masks.

"I'm going to introduce Gesshoku no Hinata and Rasen no Neji together, since I think that they would probably prefer it."

Hinata and Neji looked at Sakura who nodded, then they removed their masks, still with the genjutsu.

"What-" The smoking man began.

"KAI!" Sakura called.

There were a series of startled gasps as the genjutsu disappeared and Hinata's and Neji's eyes returned to their true milk white color. They both looked around at the others, who were staring in shocked silence.

"Hello," Hinata said, "It's very nice to meet you. As I'm sure you've already guessed, I was Hyuuga Hinata, but I will not respond to that name."

"That goes for me as well," Neji said, stepping forwards, "I was Hyuuga Neji, but I will not answer to that name until the family changes. Besides, officially we are disowned. I have a question though, I've seen much of the Uchiha family, but why have the Hyuuga not grown in power?"

"It seems that there is an agreement between the Uchiha clan and the feiku-Godaime. There has always been a rivalry between the Hyuuga and Uchiha since the Hyuuga settled in Konoha, and the Uchiha seemed to have come to an agreement that they would support him if he gave them power. The Hyuuga clan is no less respected, but it has lost a tremendous amount of power over the years," a sick looking man walking out from the shadows, coughing, "I'm not sure what the dynamics of the clan itself are, but I know that the official clan head, Hiashi is under a great deal of stress to raise the position of the clan."

"It seems that nothing's changed then," Neji said dismissively.

"No, not really," the man agreed, Naruto thought that he probably should have taken the night off, "But, I feel that you should know, both of you. Your 'kidnapping' was a rather convenient thing, for you. Hiashi has no knowledge of this, but I managed to discover that the Elders of the Hyuuga clan were going to kill the pair of you, in order to preserve the secrets of the Clan. As you are no longer official members, you are not subject to the Clan's laws of secrecy."

"Hiashi was ignorant of this?" Hinata asked.

"Completely," the man nodded, "unless I am very wrong."

"I see,"

Kakashi coughed to get everyone's attention.

"This is the second in command of Hakumei, according to Jiraiya-sama, Arashi no Sasuke."

Sasuke remove his mask and stepped forwards, looking bored.

"I'm sure you've guessed by this time, but I was Uchiha Sasuke. After seeing what my former family has become, I'm glad I'm no longer associated with them. Even my parents and perhaps my brother, although I haven't seen him."

"For obvious reasons," a man chewing on a stick muttered, "Uchiha Itachi defected five years ago."

Sasuke took a step back, "What?! Why?!"

The man shrugged, "Who knows, he disappeared one night, killing a squad of the Military Police. No one's heard anything of him since then. He's all but dropped off the face of the planet. We had hoped that you would have some news of him."

Anko rolled her eyes.

"What do you mean by 'we'," she said, "I told you that I agreed that Itachi went looking for Sasuke, but if they were under the protection of the Sannin, then there was no way that he would be able to find them. Itachi was an expert at tracking, the guy was an expert at everything, but even he couldn't find someone once the Sannin decided they didn't want them found."

Sasuke's head was down and his eyes were hard to see, but he said nothing. Naruto assumed that he was digesting this new information.

Man, this was just not Sasuke's day. First he runs into someone who had obviously hurt him, then he finds out that the older brother who he had always admired was a missing nin and a murderer, and possibly because of him.

"Finally, I would like to introduce the leader of Hakumei," Kakashi seemed completely un-phased and completely happy to do his introduction slowly, "This is Shippuu no Naruto."

Naruto removed his mask, grinning a little nervously. He didn't have the presence of Sasuke or Neji that just commanded respect; in fact he had a huge handicap in the Kyuubi. Tsunade had once told him that half the reason that he got on so badly with people who he just met was because that they could at some level feel the Kyuubi's presence, and it made them take an immediate dislike to him.

Naruto raised one hand to the shocked silence. Iruka was staring at him with a strange mix of emotions that Naruto couldn't catch on his face. Then he was suddenly engulfed in a hug.

Naruto wasn't all that used to physical contact. Tsunade wasn't the huggiest person in the world, and when Sakura hugged him, it was usually to get something from him. It took a great deal of self control to keep him from stiffening in Iruka's embrace.

"Heh…Hi, Iruka-sensei…" Naruto said with a small smile, "Aren't you going to yell at me or make your head look huge the way you did when I goofed off in class. I mean, I've missed all of your boring lectures…"

Iruka said nothing, but finally, he let Naruto go, his face seemed to have softened considerably.

"Why, Naruto?" he asked, "What happened to make you not come back? _Do you have any idea how worried I was_?"

Naruto didn't know what to say to those words. He stared at Iruka and realized that at some level, he had never really thought that anyone would ever really worry about him all that much outside of Hakumei, and they would never say those words so bluntly. When he was younger, he had never had anyone who told him when to be home, and there had been times when he had been out all night, just because he was bored. Or maybe it had been because he felt less alone outside than he had in the silent house…

"I'm sorry, Iruka-sensei," Naruto said, seriously, "Things happened so fast…there was no way we could have told you that we were alright…"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU COME BACK?" The shout echoed in the room, and others made hushing noises at Iruka, who wasn't listening.

"…we couldn't," Naruto mumbled, "They would have killed us."

Iruka opened his mouth, but Kakashi interrupted.

"Hakumei has a rather interesting story to tell all of us," he said, "I don't know most of it myself, but Jiraiya-sama informed me that it had to do with Iwa and why they vanished."

"It's a bit more involved than that," Hinata said, looking around at everyone, "We…we saw the Sandaime die on that night."

There was a collective intake of breath.

"What!" the woman with red eyes said, "You saw Iwa's assassination squad?"

"Hinata-imouto didn't say that," Neji cut in, "she just said that she saw the Sandaime murdered, "Iwa had nothing to do with it."

"What?!" Even the guy chewing on the stick stopped.

"The Sandaime wasn't assassinated, he was murdered," Sasuke said, "We were all in the playground that night for different reasons that really aren't important anymore. A little after we met up, we heard the voices of two men talking and hid in some nearby bushes. The Sandaime and someone else came into view. The other person wanted the Sandaime to abdicate and name him as his successor and the Sandaime refused, saying that he didn't think that it was a good time. At that, the other man just seemed to shift and the Sandaime was suddenly on the ground, bleeding. The man didn't notice us for some reason; he was probably too busy thinking about what he had just done to really look around for on lookers. He left, and when we ran over to the Sandaime, he was still alive, barely. He gave us some scrolls, told us to run, and died there. All of us agreed to run away that night, and escaped," Sasuke told his brief revision of events.

"That's why we couldn't come back," Naruto said to Iruka, "We were afraid we'd be killed since…we'd seen what had really happened, and Danzou wanted an excuse to go to war."

There was a brief, heavy silence and the room erupted into talk.

* * *

It seemed they would never leave. The story had to be repeated over and over again. Kurenai, the red eyed woman, wanted to hear over and over how they hid, mostly because she was astounded that Danzou hadn't killed them. Hayate had listened only once and was speaking in a hushed voice to a woman with long purple hair, who was nodding. Iruka had been completely silent for a very long time, but was still watching Naruto, who wasn't talking much.

No one seemed like they didn't believe the story, and if anyone was having thoughts about killing Danzou, they weren't now.

Iruka was chosen to lead Hakumei to the hotel, and he was silent for the entire trip. Naruto occationally dropped glances at him, but he didn't know what to say. Iruka had really been the closest thing that Naruto had had to a father in Konoha, and now…well…what was he supposed to say to him. His apology somehow didn't seem enough, and he felt that he had let Iruka down somehow.

"Nar…Shippuu," Iruka said, once he had led them to the lobby, "Can you stay behind for a moment?"

Naruto nodded, and waited while the others went upstairs.

"What is it Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"…I just want you to know…" Iruka said, "When, you disappeared…Danzou took over and everything completely changed. In order to keep my job, I had to adhere to the practices of the new regime. I thought that if I just acted like I agreed with him, and didn't secretly, nothing would really change, but I found myself doing and saying things that I wouldn't have done or said before. I realized I was changing into what Danzou wanted me to be, and that the same thing probably was happening to those who had managed to keep their positions. Anko says that I developed a sort of split personality, but…well…I'm not the Iruka-sensei that you knew…I'm not angry that you left, I might have been when you just returned like nothing had happened, but I understand, and maybe…well…"

"Iruka-sensei…" Naruto had to cut in, "You sound like you're breaking up with your girlfriend…"

There were some splutters.

"Before I left…I always kind of thought of you like a sort of dad," Naruto admitted, "but I never really thought to think about if you were worried about me or not. Stupid really, I mean, all those times you got mad at me for being late or sleeping in class was because you were worried about me.

"The point of what I'm saying is that I still think of you like that. The rest of Hakumei are like my siblings and Ero-Sennin and Baa-chan are like my grandpa and grandma, or pervy uncle and aunt, sometimes it's hard to tell which, but you were always kind of my dad. So you had to toughen up a little, so what? Iruka-sensei is Iruka-sensei."

"…Thanks Naruto," Iruka smiled, "You've grown up a lot since I saw you last."

"I sure hope so!"

* * *

Sasuke couldn't fall asleep, and nothing seemed to be able to help. Gaara had gone to the bathroom when he finally gave up and decided to sit in the lobby. His head was spinning like it was the day that he had first heard that the Uchiha family was cursed. Now, he believed it. There must be some sort of curse on it. Itachi had gone insane and killed a bunch of people.

Kiren thought that Itachi had gone off looking for Sasuke, but Sasuke knew better. If Itachi had really wanted to find him, he would have…because…Itachi was perfect at everything, and besides, Sasuke had probably just been a burden to him anyways…a problem that constantly needed to be looked after…nothing more.

"Sasuke?"

Sasuke turned around to see Sakura, who was standing in the doorway, watching him. Her eyes were worried and she was biting her lip. Without saying anything, she walked in and sat down next to him.

"So…how are you holding up?" she asked.

"What do you mean by that?" Sasuke tried to sound somewhat indignant.

"Sasuke," Sakura rolled her eyes, "I've known you for who knows how long. You've always really looked up to your brother, and you really cared about your family, no matter how much you complained about them. Today you found out that your brother's a missing nin and your family is a bunch of power hungry nutcases who helped the man who murdered the Sandaime get into power. You're having insomnia, and Naruto's been giving you worried looks. I know you haven't told anyone what you really feel and I…just thought that maybe…"

Sakura trailed off, she looked embarrassed and ready to get up and run back upstairs.

"...I saw my mother today," Sasuke said suddenly, "She didn't even know it was me. She looked at me like I was a bug or something, and I realized that…that was how she had always looked at people outside of our clan. When I finally recovered, I wasn't sure if I wanted to see Itachi again…what if he was the same? What if he looked at me with those same cold eyes? Then they told me that he was a missing nin…and…if he had looked for me…he…."

Sasuke's voice was having trouble, and what was worse, it was right in front of Sakura. This, for some reason, was worse than it would have been had he lost it in front of anyone else, even Kimimaro. Even Sai!

"Don't be stupid!" Sakura said angrily, "Baka! I don't care how good your brother was, didn't you ever notice that Jiraiya's house had the mother of all genjutsu around it? I don't know how the man did it, or if it was someone else, but no one would have found that thing unless he had taken them there. As far as your mom goes, well, then aren't you glad that she didn't remember you? She would have reported us, or worse, and now you don't have to worry about where your loyalties lie. We're your family, Sasuke. All of us. Probably including your brother!"

Sasuke smiled a little. While he wasn't so sure about Itachi anymore, what Sakura had said had actually made him feel much better. She did have that affect on him sometimes, making his more unpleasant moods lighten. Even if the problem wasn't solved, the burden was lighter to bare.

"Sakura…arigato…" Sasuke muttered.

"Heh…you're welcome…"

* * *

Naruto slept later than the others, who, including Zabuza had gone off 'sightseeing' (making a map of the new Konoha and becoming accustomed to the layout). Naruto dragged himself downstairs and asked if there was a message for him. There wasn't, which wasn't unexpected, but Naruto, fully acting the part looked surprised, but didn't say anything. He would be left to his own sightseeing, which might have proved beneficial anyways.

Naruto thought about going back to Ichiraku, but although his stomach rejoiced at the idea, his common sense told him not to be stupid. He had been there once already, and few people hung around a single place.

Naruto left the hotel, thinking about where to have breakfast. He didn't know that many places really, it was usually just ramen for him, but he would have to be different, there weren't that many completely ramen obsessed people running around.

While he was thinking this, he felt something run into him with a crash. Out of instinct, Naruto had reached down a grabbed the thing by the shirt.

"HEY LEGGO A ME!" A kid's voice yelled, trying to sound threatening, but only managing annoying.

Naruto stared at the kid, who was wearing the weirdest hat that he had ever seen, and pants and a t-shirt with a very long scarf. He was struggling wildly and looked like he was trying to bite Naruto.

"Oh, great, you found my punching bag," a familiar voice said, as Kankuro walked up, he was glaring at the kid, "That brat almost broke one of my weapons."

"It's your fault for playing with dolls!" the kid yelled.

Kankuro's hand balled into a fist.

"Did this kid run into you too?" he asked Naruto, "I'll tell you what, we can share him."

"You wouldn't dare hurt me!" the kid yelled, "I'm the grandson of the Sandaime!"

That caught both of their attentions. While the kid laughed at how they had to put him down now, Kankuro and Naruto looked at each other.

"You think he's telling the truth?" Kankuro asked.

"I'm surprised," Naruto admitted, "I would have thought that the ROOT would be breathing down our necks now."

"I guess that either he's lying, or they just don't care," Kankuro smirked.

"Kankuro, this is a seven-year-old," Naruto said.

"I'm nine!" the kid cut in.

"Won't we be going down to his level if we beat him up?" Naruto asked.

Kankuro glared at the brat but sighed a little.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess I'm tense or something. Temari's been up since four attacking us randomly, and Matsuri's working on her…whatever. I wanted to work on my techniques, and then this little spy goes around saying that I'm playing with dolls!"

Kankuro must have been tense. He was telling a complete stranger how he attacked.

Naruto said nothing, knowing that this was probably not the best thing to point out to him.

Naruto calmly dropped the kid on the ground.

"Ha! The great Konohamaru, grandson of the Sandaime, defeats his enemies!" he crowed.

Naruto looked at Kankuro.

"I understand you wanting to kill him," he said, ignoring the kid.

"Yeah, but now that you mention it, I don't want to be arrested,"

"Stop ignoring me!" Konohamaru yelled, "I'm the grandson of the Sandaime!"

"Like I care," Naruto said rolling his eyes and walking away, Kankuro going in the opposite direction, "just 'cause your grandpa was someone worth respecting doesn't mean you are."

Naruto walked on knowing that the kid was following him, but not paying him any kind of attention what so ever. He finally stopped at something that he recognized on sight: the playground. Neji had mentioned going there and meeting some weird guy in tights and a shiny bowl cut, but Naruto was surprised that his feet had taken him here of all places. He stopped and looked around; it hadn't changed…not at all…

"Hey, Taiki," Naruto heard Sai's voice, "Did you know that there is a rock following you around?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at Sai's words, but Sai seemed more amused than anything else. He was actually smiling, "You have such a way with kids," he said, walking up to Naruto and leaning against the side of the slide.

"Hn,"

"You sound like Masaru!"

"ACK! Don't compare me to him when he acts like that!"

Sai laughed a little, "Well, I just thought to tell you, Honda-sensei wants us to meet him in training ground three that he's managed to reserve for us somehow. I think he wants to murder us before the Exams. Well, I'll see you then!"

Sai started to walk off, waving his hand.

"Hey, don't leave me with this totally suspicious square rock with obvious eye holes!"

Sai ignored him; apparently they had decided without him that the best plan of action would be to split up. Well, maybe he shouldn't have overslept and he would have known what was going on.

Naruto glared at it, losing patience.

"A square rock with eye holes doesn't exist. Try again," he rolled his eyes.

There was a big poof of smoke and Konohamaru appeared, throwing off the box, and trying to strike an impressive pose.

"Just what I would expect from the man who I wish to train me!" he yelled.

"What?" Naruto asked, shocked.

"Train me!" Konohamaru cried.

"Go talk to that other guy!"

"He plays with dolls!"

Naruto stared at him, "Don't you have a teacher?"

Konohamaru looked down at the ground, "No…Uncle Asuma says he'll teach me when I'm older, but I want to be Hokage as soon as I can!"

Naruto looked at him and cocked his head a little, "Why?"

"Why should I tell you?" Konohamaru yelled, "You're a foreign ninja!"

"Who you want to teach you," Naruto pointed out.

Konohamaru was quiet for a moment and looked embarrassed. He sat down on the swing set and didn't talk for some time, then, haltingly he spoke."

"I don't remember Ji-san. I was only four or so when he died, and…dad used to tell me all kinds of stories about what he was like before he died, and when Uncle Asuma started to take care of me, he told me other stories. I want to be better than he was, but I don't want the ninja here to teach me. All they ever do is tell me what Ji-san did wrong! I don't care what he didn't do! I want to be Hokage, and then everyone will have to stop badmouthing him and listen to me!"

"And you want my help because I'm not going to tell you want your Ji-san did wrong?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah!" Konohamaru nodded.

Naruto looked at the kid hard. In some ways he reminded Naruto of himself, but in others, he was happy to say that there was nothing in common between them.

"You know that I'm going to be your rival one day right?" Naruto asked, "I'm not from this village, and one day, I may be your enemy."

"Who cares?" Konohamaru yelled, "Boss!"

Naruto blinked, "What did you call me?"

"Boss, Boss, Boss!" Konohamaru chanted.

"How did this even happen?" Naruto asked the sky above him, but still felt oddly pleased, "Alright, alright, I'll teach you something. This is the sure fire way to cause a serious distraction on the battle field as long as your opponent isn't blind, or has no emotion what-so-ever. I've even immobilized an S-class ninja with this once. This is a technique that I made up and it's called Oiroke no Jutsu…"

* * *

**Omake:** Naruto's First Cold

The Kyuubi no Kitsune, greatest of all the Bijuu and most feared of all creatures lay in his cage and dreamed of the revenge that he would get on the world. The boy would have to die, thinking that he was doing some kind of good…yes, that was the perfect punishment, and Kyuubi would keep him alive, just so he could see the destruction he would cause. Grant it that the three year old child hadn't done anything to him personally, but he was still human, and still the cage that kept him from finishing what he had set out to do…filthy child…and he would have made such a good mouthful.

The Kyuubi noticed for the first time, that the cage, which was technically a part of Naruto's stomach, seemed warmer than usual. That was strange, since he had never known the brat's body to change temperature. Reaching out with his power, he sensed the boy's body.

There were some strange things that hadn't been there the last time he had checked and noticed that they seemed to be attacking other strange things that had been there before.

The Kyuubi could hear the brat's voice, and when he heard the wet cough that seemed to be lurching everything around him, including the cage, and made the dim lights grow even dimmer, a realization hit him.

He had heard of such things before, humans were subject to things called _sicknesses_ and they could actually _die_ from them. This thought didn't particularly upset him until another realization hit him.

Kyuubi's life was, at the moment, tied to the brat's.

With a vengeance the demonic Kitsune used its powers for a semi-decent purpose for the first time in its existence, destroying everything single one of the attacking things. Then he got to work on the temperature. He brought it down, only to feel the heart slowing down and the lights dimming. Then he brought the heat back up to what he remembered as the normal temperature, and everything steadied.

Kyuubi cursed the Yondaime, his fate, the Yondaime, life in general, and the Yondaime for having to play nursemaid to his own cage lest he share its fate.

Meanwhile the Sandaime, was both relived and puzzled when Naruto recovered from what looked like a very nasty cold in what looked like one hour. He supposed that he would more carefully analyze what happened the next time Naruto got sick, but there was no next time.

At that time, the Kyuubi realized something else. He hated Uzumaki Naruto more than he had ever hated anyone, and years after he had gotten free, he would still hate him.

And he hadn't even been called Fuzzy Wuzzy yet.

* * *

_Another chapter done. This one was for some reason a little harder than most for me. How was my Sasuke/Sakura scene? I'm more or less testing the waters before I actually start writing true 'fluffy moments'._

_Guys, I'm going to tell you a little secret: When I was thirteen, I wrote an awful little humor story (in script format none-the-less) that got four hundred reviews for twenty-one chapters. This story is actually looking like it's going to crush that record. I'm really, really happy about it too. I just want to say that all of you are the best!_

_Additional notes:_

_Sneezing: According to Japanese superstition, if you sneeze once, someone is talking about you. It's a fairly popular gag in anime, but just in case I don't want anyone not to get the joke._

_Anko: Yeah, she's a little different than most portrayals of her. Well, if I'm going to be different, I might as well go for the gusto. It's more fun this way anyways… I really do like her, so I want to do her justice!_

_The scene with Kinen: Do you have any idea how hard that whole scene was the write? _

_Hayate: I really think that he was underestimated in the manga. I mean, the ANBU called him sempai, wouldn't that mean that he was probably a seriously good ninja?_

_Translations:_

_Shugo: Protection, Safeguard. Mostly I used that since it seems to me that that combination would have the best defense of all three teams. It has nothing to do with Shugo Chara._

_Feiku: fake_

_Baka: Idiot, fool. The word baka is made up of two kanji - Ba (horse) and Ka (deer). The idea being that if you can't tell a horse from a deer, then you must be an idiot._

_Arigato: Thank you_

_Review! _


	16. Part 2: Exams

_Author's Corner: I've noticed that there are at least two stories going around with the title 'Hakumei' or something really similar, and all of them have the idea of Naruto forming a team called 'Hakumei'. This is slightly annoying. Especially when I got a PM from someone calling me all sorts of names for copying the idea of a story called 'Hakumei' that was written after mine came out. _

_I have not copied. I am the original. Check the publish date. While there were some stories called 'Hakumei', this is the first one with that idea._

_I have got to say right now, the manga has lately rocked. I mean, there were some Arcs that I just found boring (for some reason I just am not as fond of Shikamaru as other people) but this one and the Itachi Arc both have really been great. Although I did think that the Be a Sage in Two Weeks or Less or Your Money Back was a little farfetched._

_At any rate, anyone who said Naruto is one of the weaker characters has now got to revise their opinion. He's more like the character with the most restrictions on him. I'm even happier because for the first time ever I'm actually supporting the hero. (I have a tendency to want the villain to win or actually be the protagonist.) I don't think Sasuke will die though._

_Random story: Ok I'm home, and, my mom calls me in the other room for something and I respond "Hn?" _

_I'M STARTING TO TALK LIKE AN UCHIHA!_

_As always, thanks to Ibby-kun (MegaB) for betaing for me._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra is not being paid for this work nor is she ever going to be paid for anything baring the word 'Naruto' on it._

_Here's the list._

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**80% of the final exam will be based on the one lecture you missed and the one book you didn't read.**_

_**-Unknown**_

_**

* * *

  
**_

Konohamaru harassed Naruto to train him most the day, and it was only when he had followed Naruto to where he was meeting Zabuza, and he had made one of his 'subtle' comments, that he finally ran off. Not one to be deterred, he showed up the a little later, demanding to be trained. This time he made the mistake of referring to Haku as a girl. Haku had resigned himself to adults making the confusion, but he at least got to freak Konohamaru out enough so that he didn't make that mistake again.

Naruto had other things to think about anyways.

The morning of the Chuunin Exams dawned clear, cloudless, and absolutely perfect. Naruto had plenty of time to watch the sun come up since he couldn't sleep.

Even though it wasn't something that he should be worried about, he was worried that he would give himself away by being simply too powerful. Or someone would notice his cursed whiskers and know what they meant.

Blast Fuzzy Wuzzy and his oh-so-obvious signs. Couldn't the demon Kitsune have been a bit more subtle? Even Gaara's wasn't quite so blatant. Almost, but not quite.

"Can't sleep?" Gaara asked.

"Nope," Naruto sighed.

"I know how you feel,"

Naruto sighed and rolled over, "I don't even know why I'm so worried. It's not like we really have anything to worry about."

"At least, not in the Exams," Gaara pointed out.

"Yeah, that," Naruto sighed, "ok, that's something to worry about."

"Well, you're not the only one," Gaara told him, "Everyone else has been off and on all night. Wave was nothing compared to this. We're actually…"

Naruto nodded, looking out the window. The morning sun was creeping into the room, and already everyone was stirring. They had a lot to get ready for. They had no idea what the Exams would be like, but they did all know something. The man who was heading the first exam was a complete sadist.

They hadn't caught the name during the talks of Kinen, but from what he had been hearing, he loved to torment the participants and leave them emotional wrecks. Hayate had mentioned that the last year that he was up, one of the participants had returned to his village unable to continue his career as a ninja due to his newly developed extreme nervous condition.

They might not be mere Genin, but still, Naruto knew that psychological warfare was at least half of a war, and victory. This Exam would test Naruto against not Genin, but also fully fledged Jounin.

Well, worrying about it wasn't going to help at all.

"Alright, everyone," Naruto sighed, "Up and at 'em. You're all awake, so let's just do some extra training or something."

"Sounds good," Sasuke said, opening both eyes. He seemed to be in a better mood than last night, but Naruto still wanted to know who he had met.

"Do you want to wake up the girls?" Haku asked.

"They're awake," Kimimaro said, not opening his eyes, "I've been hearing them whispering together for a while now. Whatever it is, they've been giggling for quite a while."

The boys exchanged nervous looks with one another. Sometimes their giggling was a completely innocent thing, and other times it was a calm before a storm of some kind. No one could think of any reason for vengeance, but that didn't mean much.

"Let's hope that they're giggling over their respective crushes," Sai said.

"They have crushes?" Kimimaro asked, "I thought that they were only female on a technicality, like Tsunade."

"She likes Jiraiya," Gaara pointed out.

"Oh yeah, I forget sometimes…I hope neither of them like me…"

"Don't worry about that, Kimimaro," Sakura said, walking in, "We weren't giggling about you."

"Well, there's nothing I need to worry about then," Kimimaro smirked.

"We have about two hours until we need to really get ready for the Exams," Hinata said, "Do you want to go over everything again?"

"There's nothing to go over," Naruto shrugged, "Loyalty to Hakumei as a whole comes before teams, Anko told us what the second Exam would be, and as long as we just target other people and eliminate as many teams as we can, we'll pass the Exam as good, but somewhat ruthless, Genin."

"You want to take out Konoha Genin too?" Sasuke asked.

"We take out whoever gets in our way," Naruto replied, "Konoha or not."

* * *

The first Exam was held in the Academy. Even though there were no classes that day, Naruto found himself plagued with memories. He had never thought that he would miss this place so much. It wasn't like he had ever really been happy there.

Yes, he had had Iruka, but other than that, he had been so alone. The other students, who had parents who knew what Naruto was, had always told their children to avoid Naruto, and in time, the loathing had passed on. Kiba, Shikamaru, Chouji and he had only gotten together out of mutual disdain for school. Naruto doubted that he had been missed much.

Yet, it somehow felt really good to be back and even better to be with everyone as well. Now he wanted to go back to those days, with everyone. Rewrite the past. But this was enough. He had the present, and the future.

That was better.

"Don't you think it's kind of cheesy to have the Exam in a school?" Neji asked.

"I'd say that it's very cliché," Sai agreed.

"Well, where else do you think it would be?" Sakura asked.

"I'd rather if it was somewhere more pleasant," Hinata said, "I didn't really enjoy my time here."

"Me neither," Sakura agreed.

"I always had hoped to never set foot in a school again," Sasuke admitted.

"Why?" Naruto asked, "You always had perfect grades and all the teachers liked you."

Without a word, Sasuke jabbed one thumb behind him, not even turning around.

Naruto, Kimimaro and Sai turned around to see a small group of girls following them, or rather Sasuke, with what could almost have been hearts fluttering above their heads. The girls jumped behind one of the classroom doors the second that they turned around.

"I'm not sure whether I should feel jealous or sympathetic," Sai told Sasuke, "Those are probably the most predatory looking women that I've ever seen."

"I'd make sure they couldn't find the hotel," Kimimaro said, "and lock all doors and windows."

"Thanks for your unending support," Sasuke sighed.

The group reached the second floor to see a large crowd of what looked like Genin encircled around a door with a room reading 301, the room where the Exam was being held. Two Genin stood with their arms crossed, blocking the entrance and smirking.

"None of you are good enough to be Chuunin," one of them, with a band across his face, sneered, "Get lost."

Naruto noticed on the spot that these two greatly resembled a pair of Chuunin that Naruto had seen at the meeting but had never actually managed to catch the names of. From what he had seen, they were close friends who seemed to usually be paired together in assignments. He doubted that either was married, and neither of them was old enough to have a kid that age, unless they had been married at around thirteen and had a kid right from the get go.

There was a Genjutsu.

Sakura coughed and looked at the sign. The others looked at it, and for a minute, Naruto didn't have a clue what she was getting that, then he almost started to laugh.

This was the second floor, not the third floor.

This was just a part of the test, and these people they were delaying would fail.

"You guys saw it?" A female voice asked.

Everyone turned around to see a Genin that looked a little older than them standing close by. She was a little taller than Naruto, like everyone, and her brown hair was put up into two buns on either side of her head. She was smiling in a somewhat friendly, somewhat dangerous way.

"My team already figured it out, but I hung around since I wanted to know who else would get it," she smirked a little, "So far, you're the only ones who have. And to think you're Grass nin."

Were all Konoha Genin this annoying?

Oh, wait, there was also Shino…he was just disturbing.

"Well," Neji said in a slightly dismissive tone, "you might find that you've underestimated those 'minor villages'. It looks to me like Konoha might be powerful, but its Genin haven't learned the single most important rule of a ninja: to improvise and think on their feet."

"Don't be too overconfident, Grass nin," the girl replied, "Konoha is the most powerful nation in the world for a really good reason."

Naruto could almost see sparks flying between the two.

"Well," Neji said softly, "we'll see just who is better, won't we?"

He walked past her, and looked behind at the others as if to say, 'well?' Naruto shrugged and followed him along with the others. The girl's eyes followed Neji the entire way until they disappeared from her sight. When they were gone, she leaned against the wall and lowered her eyes. The only sound she made was a small sigh.

"That wasn't too bright," Sai commented as they walked up the stairs.

"Shut up," Neji rolled his eyes.

"I think he was trying to impress her," Sakura whispered to Hinata.

"It does seem like it," Hinata whispered back.

Naruto grinned.

* * *

Zabuza was not a happy person.

It appeared that it was somewhat customary for the Senseis of all the participants to sit around and complain to one another about what a pain their students were. While Zabuza was more than happy to tell the kids to their faces that they were hellions, deserved to be cut limb from limb, and say all kinds of insulting things about them and their mothers, it seemed kind of stupid to complain about them to a bunch of strangers.

Particularly ones that were all searching for loose tongues to tell them their students' weaknesses.

He was sitting next to a person named Baki, who was a Sand Jounin, and was listening to Asuma, a member of Kinen who Zabuza had been told about, complain about his squad.

"-and there's the way that Sora kid looks at me," he was said, "Honestly, you'd think I was an enemy nin or something!"

"What about you, Honda-san?" Kurenai, a crimson eyed woman who was also in Kinen, asked, "What are your students like?"

Zabuza looked around, but everyone was staring at him, probably because he hadn't said anything yet. Baki was looking at him with a sort of greedy look on his face, and Zabuza was sure what he was thinking or hoping.

"They're the most annoying brats on the face of the earth," Zabuza snarled, "All of them are too powerful for their own good, think they're immortal, and are as manipulative as you can get. I guess that's what you get. They have this weird little partnership that I've never seen before."

"So they won't fight amongst themselves?" Baki asked, "All students have bickering."

"Oh, they fight amongst themselves," Zabuza said, actually all he had ever seen between them was mocking and teasing, "They have this weird unity that only comes out when they're in a life threatening situation."

He was lying through his teeth. It was funny. It didn't benefit him in the slightest to protect them. In fact, he might have made things worse for himself. If they stayed alive, they would always know a lot about who he was and what kinds of attacks he used. Yet, they all reminded him of something that he wasn't sure he wanted to remember. Something that he had suppressed a long time ago and would cause trouble if it was brought to light now.

It was coming of its own accord.

He had seen a group like that once. He had been a member of it. The Seven Swordsmen had had that close unity. They were the only ones who had survived graduation, and they had blocked those memories by becoming as close-knit as possible. The only woman in the troop had once told him that she would never love any of them as lovers because she saw that love as weaker than the bond they shared.

But he had loved her. A long time ago, before the current Mizukage took control.

Somewhere, he had never forgotten that bond. He had been such a fool back then, and had thought that it would last forever. Just like those kids, particularly that one, Haku. In a way, the boy reminded him of himself at that time, only Haku was not as bloodstained. Zabuza had joined when he was thirteen, nothing more than a child drenched in unwanted blood, and there he had found people like him.

Hakumei was the same and yet different. It was composed not of murderers, but of victims. Every single one of them had faced some kind of merciless persecution. They were too free with their stories, and he had guessed what the Jinchuuriki were on sight. It was like looking at a slightly changed reflection.

Maybe…in a way…he didn't want to see them share his fate. It would probably kill Haku. He was too dependent on the others. Sasuke would dedicate his life to getting revenge on the one who did it, and live on as an empty shell. Gaara might just snap the way he seemed to be always threatening to do. Sai would retreat into himself. Kimimaro would throw himself into the next group who would have him. Hinata might actually join Sasuke. Sakura would be broken and embittered. Naruto…that kid would probably always live in the past. Or just continue on, never really trusting anyone.

Did he actually kind of like them?

No, that was impossible. He had lost that feeling on that day.

_I'm becoming a sap_, Zabuza thought to himself, _I've been listening to that Haku brat talk about 'precious people' too long._

"Sounds like a lot of teams," Baki sounded disappointed, "My genin have a tendency to gang up on the youngest girl. It's annoying to hear."

Zabuza nodded absently, his thoughts were a little off, but he had long since learned how to act like he was paying attention.

The door to the room where the Jornin were lounging around opened, and Zabuza turned to face the newcomer.

His eyes widened fractionally.

* * *

Naruto opened the door to room number 301. The hall was deserted, which was kind of strange after the crowd on the floor below. For a moment, a vague fear of the room number being wrong came to mind, but one look in the room told him that he was in the right place.

There were foreign ninja everywhere.

Naruto hadn't ever seen so many different hitai-ites in one place in his life. Even some ninja from countries that weren't really fond of Konoha like Rain were there. Iwa, which was now under Konoha's dictate, had made an appearance, but the Genin they had sent were peaky looking.

A bunch of dark glares greeted Hakumei as they appeared, and one person sneered a little bit.

"Oh, great, more weak Genin," he, a Waterfall nin, said to his friends, "This Exam'll be easy."

"…why are you dragging me over here, Ino?" a tired, bored voice asked to Naruto's left.

"Because I want to see the competition," a female voice replied.

Naruto turned towards the voices and almost had a heart attack.

Standing there, looking bored and a little annoyed, was Nara Shikamaru. He didn't look like he had changed a day, other than the uniform that he was wearing. His hair was still tied back in the ponytail, and his face still had that uninterested look. Naruto made sure his face was one that didn't show anything. He had seen just how smart that guy was before.

The girl in the group had long blonde hair that she kept in a high ponytail and what seemed to be pupil-less blue eyes. She was also wearing the uniform, but had tried to make it look as flattering as she could, using her hitai-ite as a belt. She was looking at all of the guys in an appraising way and she seemed to be counting the number of girls. Naruto had a very vague recollection of her, but he couldn't think of her name.

The other boy, who was overweight and seemed to be wearing…underwear…with his hitai-ite on it, was someone that Naruto knew right at the beginning. It was Chouji, another one of the dead lasts that Naruto had used to hang around with. Usually they would sit around in the gym and read manga or complain about school. Chouji had always been eating, and Naruto remembered hearing that he was teased a lot about his weight and was really sensitive about it.

"Wow, Kusa's sending a lot of people this year," Chouji remarked, "You're some of the few who are our age too. This your first Exam?"

That was strange, Naruto thought, Chouji didn't seem that different than he was before. He had been fairly friendly to people, even if he had only hung around Naruto because of convenience. He had never made all that much fun of him.

"Yeah," Kimimaro said, "We all entered together. The three of us waited since we want to get promoted together."

"Really?" Chouji asked. "That's different."

"Well, we grew up together and well...it would be nice to celebrate on the same footing," Gaara told him.

Shikamaru nodded, and Naruto noticed with a queasy feeling in his stomach that he was looking right at him. Naruto prayed that Shikamaru wasn't thinking what Naruto thought he was thinking.

The girl wasn't really listening, she had learned over to Hinata and Sakura, but Naruto could hear the conversation.

"Hey, you two," she hissed, "I have some interrogation for you."

"What?" Hinata asked, looking a little surprised.

"Do hot guys grow on trees in Kusa or what?" she asked, "all I have are Dog-breath, Bug-boy, the-Laziest-Guy-on Earth, Chouji, and…well, them,"

She pointed over to a small trio consisting of two guys and one girl. The only person who really stood out in Naruto's memory was a guy with short, light greenish blueish hair. For some reason when he looked at him, he felt the Kyuubi's seal burn a little. The guy turned around and noticed Naruto looking at him.

He walked over and glared.

"Do you have some sort of problem?" he sneered.

"Not really," Naruto said.

"Then you had better not make eye contact with me unless you want to die," he said, "I'm Sora, the toughest Genin here. I can kill any one of you, and if you look at me like an equal again I'll-"

"HEY GUYS," Naruto yelled for the whole room to hear, "THIS GUY SAYS HE CAN BEAT ALL OF US TOGETHER!"

That caught everyone's attention. The whole room went dead silent as everyone slowly turned around to face Sora. The killer intent could have been cut with a knife and even the arrogant boy backed down a little bit. Naruto grinned at him evilly.

"You're dead in the Exams, loser," Sora hissed as the other Genin began to inch towards him. "I'd sleep with one eye open if I were you."

"Now, now," a soft, polite voice said, "Sora-kun, it's not a good idea to go picking fights with the foreign ninja."

A young man who looked to be around seventeen or eighteen walked into view. He was pale, with white hair, black eyes, and glasses. He was smiling a little, but Naruto had a slight nagging feeling that he was more dangerous than he looked.

Sora made a huffing, sneering sound.

"Who asked you, Kabuto?" he glowered, "This is your eighth time in the Exam right? Kinda pathetic."

The other Genin were slowly advancing but when he retreated they seemed to think better of whatever they were planning. At least, they seemed to decide to save the fate they were planning for a time when he didn't have any friends that could help them.

Kabuto looked at Naruto and smiled a little.

"I'm sorry about him," he said, "Sora is a little...proud. He has been trained personally by Danzou-sama, and has some trouble getting along with people."

Naruto watched his retreating figure and raised an eyebrow in a very Sasuke-ish way.

"I suppose it would be prying to ask what the Godaime Hokage sees in that guy," Naruto said.

"I don't really know myself," Kabuto told him, "there are plenty of rumors, but I don't know what's true and what's not."

Naruto knew that even if Kabuto did know something, he wasn't going to tell. However, the fact that he was being friendly was kind of strange. He was probably trying to make Naruto feel comfortable. Well, this was one of the better plans.

"Kusa's sending in a tremendous amount of Genin this year isn't it?" Kabuto asked, "Not only you and your friends, but the other team that came a few weeks before."

Naruto's ears pricked up. This was interesting. He had been told that the communication had stopped. There shouldn't have been another team.

"Really, where are they?" Naruto asked, "We didn't get to see the other Genin too much since most of them were older, and our sensei hates socializing."

"Ah, so you're not really familiar with the other Genin?" Kabuto asked curiously.

"Nah, I guess we're as antisocial as our sensei," Naruto laughed, but felt a little uneasy. He felt like the answer was very important. There was a slight feeling of tension in the air, but as Naruto spoke he felt the pressure disappearing.

"That makes sense," Kabuto nodded, "I'm sorry if I sound inquisitive, but while we are taught about the tactics of our neighbors, we don't learn too much about their society."

"Hey, Taiki," Sai called, "Chouji here says that he can eat thirty bowls of ramen in one shot."

Naruto turned around, while he was at twenty-six, he knew who the undisputed champ really was.

Naruto grinned, "Alright, then tell him to go up against Rei."

Hinata smiled a little at that. Everyone knew that she could eat an amazing amount of food. She had won the first and only eating contest that Hakumei had ever had.

By a landslide.

Chouji looked over at Hinata, who was a very dainty looking girl really and narrowed his eyes.

"I now have no trust in appearances anymore," was all he said.

Hinata giggled, "The guys were pretty surprised when I managed thirty-five and Taiki almost managed twenty-seven. I did feel a little sick after that though..."

The blonde girl stared at Hinata with an open mouth, "I'm not sure if I'm jealous or just shocked."

"It was really weird," Sakura shrugged, "So, you're..."

"Oh," the girl slapped her forehead, "I'm so rude, I'm Yamanaka Ino, this is Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji. We're Team Eight. It's really nice to meet you."

"I'm Emi," Sakura said with a bright, winning smile, "This is Taiki, Masaru, Rei, Ryou, Shinta, Haru, Yuuma and Hideaki. It's great to meet you."

There were some polite mutterings, but the real interesting introduction was Sai.

"It's very nice to meet you, Miss Gorgeous," Sai said, for the first time in his life giving someone a flattering nickname.

"Dattebayo," Naruto said, with very wide eyes. Sai had actually said that? Seriously? And Ino was blushing?

Sakura (Hag) and Hinata (Boring) both began to sneak up on him, probably to do some horrible deed that would haunt Sai at night for the next couple years.

Whatever they were going to do was interrupted by a very load voice.

"Alright, you brats, shut up," the voice was very harsh and something about it sent a shiver up Naruto's spine, "The first Exam begins now!"

Naruto turned to see tall man with a long coat and a bandanna over his head. He was very tan and his eyes were very hard and something about him radiated a sinister power that made everyone, even the more violent of the Genin stop what they were doing and listen.

"My name is Ibiki, and that's all you need to know about me other than that I'm going to be your head examiner during this Exam. If you manage to pass this test, then you get to go under the power of another Jounin. They might be nice...but I doubt it. Since all of you are taking this Exam, it means one thing: for one reason or another, your Sensei thinks you've got what it takes to be a Chunnin. Well, we're going to see about that. All of you follow me into the next room and take a seat with someone who _isn't_ your teammate, friend, or lover. You heard me."

Naruto noticed for the first time that there was another exit from the room the one that he had entered through. Jiraiya would have killed him for not noticing it. Then again, it was kind of hard to see anything with the crowd. He filed through the double doors with the rest of the students. The next room was big, with a lot of individual desks and seats that faced the desks all around the windows. Naruto sat close to the front. He was joined by Shikamaru.

"So...how ya doing..._Naruto?_" he asked in a very quiet voice.

"Eh?" Naruto asked, trying to look innocent.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed, "Come on, you know me from when we were kids, Naruto...do I have to ask again...it's a real drag..."

"Look, I don't know-"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"You're the only guy with whiskers and you're the only human being who uses the word 'dattebayo'," he said, "Just give it up..."

Naruto knew there was no way around this.

"Just act like you made a mistake; I'll tell you what I'm doing here later,"

"I think I know what you're doing here. I just want to tell you that you can trust Chouji, Ino, and I," Shikamaru's tone, never lost his bored edge. It was perfect. No one would listen in, "Memory is never completely forgotten."

That was one of the ways that some members of Kinen distinguished themselves.

"And old wrongs are always remembered," Naruto nodded.

"Yeah," Shikamaru said, a little louder, "I thought that all villages had similar structures, it would be kind of weird otherwise."

Naruto nodded, as if they had been talking about his the entire time, "Yeah, some things stay the same I guess."

"Alright, maggots," Ibiki said, sneering at all of them. He had taken a place at the front of the room and the large blackboard that stood there. "I'm going to explain the rules one time, so listen up. You're going to be handed one sheet of paper with nine questions on it. You have to answer them. If you get more than three wrong, you fail. If you get caught cheating more than three times, your team fails. To make sure you don't cheat, the chairs that you see will be filled with Chuunin. You have one hour."

One of the many Chuunin who were now filing through two doors on either side of the blackboard had a large stack of papers that Naruto assumed were the tests. He was ready to hit his head on the desk repeatedly now. Naruto reeked at written tests. It just seemed to be some kind of mental block he had. Even if he did nothing but study, the second that he looked at the test, Naruto's mind would go completely blank. He hadn't even had any chance to study for this either.

This was not looking good.

The paper was set in front of Naruto, and he flipped it over, hoping that it was something that he would be able to know. He had no such luck.

Perhaps Sakura, who was really smart, or Gaara, who had a weird way of figuring things out, would have been able to do it without a problem, but there was no way that he could.

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto noticed that Shikamaru was leaning over the paper, scribbling fast. If only he would move his arm, just a little tiny bit...but then the Chuunin would probably notice that he was looking. That was kind of strange...

After all, cheating was usually a huge deal, why was it that you had to get caught three times before you were thrown out? It almost sounded like...they wanted him to cheat. Of course, they weren't testing them on the test; they were testing them on how they could get information without getting caught.

That made so much more sense, but there was one problem. Tsunade had never trained him much on information gathering. That had never been his specialization. He was supposed to just make a Kage Bunshin and sneak into where ever he needed, but...now he would be noticed.

Naruto fought the urge to hit his head on the desk.

He was in deep kimchi.

* * *

Sakura was having no trouble at all with her answers; all of them were difficult, but not impossible. The real problem she was having was that her ink kept on disappearing. For a while she hadn't noticed, but by the time, she was half way done, she began to see the ink fading on the top of her page, other than her name.

After a brief moment of panic, she noticed the ink that she was writing with and almost gave a sigh of relief.

Sai was a sneaky little twit, but she was glad it was him.

He had apparently switched everyone's ink with some of his ninja ink. Vaguely, Sakura wondered just what had inspired his foresight. At any rate, her answers were being absorbed and would reappear once he was done copying them.

That was fine with her...

* * *

Sasuke took roughly three minutes to figure out what he needed to do, but how to do it... If anyone noticed what he was doing, they might recognize it. That would cause a lot of unwanted questions. Any attempt to make his eyes unseen would really bring attention to him. Activating the Sharingan might be the best way to cheat, but it had some real problems with it.

Recognition being the most notable.

Slowly he looked around, trying to see where the others were. They were all scattered around, and for the first time, he noticed that he was sitting next to Shino of all people. The chair next to him was empty and no one else seemed to be looking his way. Shino turned his head away from Sasuke, and seemed to be far more interested in his questions.

Well, he wasn't looking...

Carefully, keeping his head down so that there was a shadow over his eyes that looked like he was looking down at his test, Sasuke activated the Sharingan. The effect was immediate. It was like someone was putting strings on his hand. He was writing down the answers without hesitation.

If all the exams were like this, this was going to be a piece of cake.

* * *

Hinata was more worried for Naruto more than for herself.

With the Tenshi Byakugan active under the Genjustu, she could see everything around her without a problem, including Naruto's worried face. She was sure that he had figured out what he needed to do, but his powers were'nt specified for anything like this. Making Kage Bunshin made a lot of noise, and they always appeared right next to him. There was no way he could just summon one right in the middle of the Exam.

What was he going to do?

Hinata knew that Naruto wasn't perfect, and that he had limits. There were things even he couldn't do. He had brought a strange miracle into her life, in the form of her being able to become the strong Kunoichi that she had always wanted to be, but could he do this?

She noticed Sai smile a little bit as two flies flew out from his paper and almost sighed in relief. The things that Naruto couldn't do, he had friends to help with.

* * *

Neji was not having as easy a time as his cousin.

Activating the normal Byakugan was painfully obvious. After all there were huge veins that came out of his head. There had to be a way to cheat without having to face that problem. Neji stared at his paper, and frowned at the over obvious Chakra signature from someone close by him. Honestly, the way that some people cheated, he could practically see the words he was writing...wait...

Neji had trained himself to not only use the Byakugan but to be able to sense people's Chakra and what it was doing even with it closed. While Neji couldn't see just what was being written, he could sense the movements of the hands. That might be enough.

Closing his eyes, Neji felt for the over-worked Chakra signature he had felt before. It seemed to come from the person who had tried to pick a fight with Naruto, Sora. Well, this guy did have a great deal of Chakra, and it felt strangely similar to Naruto's. Perhaps they were somehow related. He had acted a lot like Naruto had before he had met them; randomly shouting things out without thinking about the consequences.

Slowly and very carefully, Neji began to write without depending on the Byakugan and became, to him, a true genius.

After all, what genius is dependent on anything but his own mind?

* * *

Gaara was debating with himself on how best to use his sand to cheat, and trying to ignore 'Sandy Wandy's' screams about killing, blood, total annihilation, and sugar. Gaara feared to eat anything sweet with that thing in his head.

He couldn't think of a single way that he could use his sand to gain this kind of information that didn't involve his using his sand to move around and look. That was a very obvious technique, and one that would deduct him at least two points just because.

One of the Sand nin, Gaara realized it was his brother, Kankuro, raised his hand.

"Um, Mr. Protractor, I have to go to the bathroom," he said.

There were some snickers in the class at the word 'Protractor', and the fact that he had to go.

"Couldn't hold the fact that he's about to wet his pants in any longer," Someone, Gaara couldn't tell who, sneered, "and he can't even say Proctor."

Kankuro rolled his eyes, but he didn't say anything in reply.

"Alright, alright," Ibiki snarled, looking over at a Chuunin, "You, take him to the bathroom and keep an eye on him."

Gaara suddenly had a very interesting idea. If he could get just a little sand on him, it could settle on the paper of his brother, who was obviously using a puppet to help him, and could absorb a little of the ink. That way, it could just settle on his paper in the same position, and stick there, with the results on them.

Gaara smiled a little, ignoring the howls of fury in his head. Apparently, Sandy Wandy had wanted him to fail. Well, it looked like Sandy Wandy was going to face another disappointment in a long line of disappointments.

Maybe he shouldn't get his hopes up so often...

* * *

Kimimaro was not pleased. He had figured out what he needed to do fairly quickly, but still, what was he going to do about it. His Kekkei Genkai wasn't really made for this kind of thing, and he had spent almost all his time learning how to use it, and not really focusing on much else.

Someone must hate him.

Kimimaro was going to have to improvise and do it fast.

There had to be some way that he could do this. Hinata and Neji could use the Byakugan for spying by just looking at the papers. Sasuke could copy the motions. Wait a second...why couldn't he try that?

After all, the human body was made up of bones, and why would he be limited to only his own bone structure? He had even managed to manipulate his bones outside of his body once, so maybe...just maybe, he could make his bones copy the movements of the bones of people around him... At any rate it was worth a shot.

Kimimaro didn't bother to close his eyes; he focused on the back of the person in front of him, a red haired girl whose hitei-ite he hadn't managed to get a good look at, and attempted to feel what her bones were doing.

There was a weak, very weak, feeling of the motion, and Kimimaro increased his attention. She was writing, Kimimaro could tell because of the periodic motions of her hand bones. This just might work...

Carefully, copying the placement and motion of her hands, Kimimaro began to write himself. The things that came out of the writing looked like they were probably answers. They were a little shaky, but Kimimaro supposed that that could be mistaken for nerves.

He had done it!

* * *

Haku was working with a very, very complicated system of ice mirrors that had to be set in just the right places to reflect a paper with the answers on them. It was a very complex way to do things, but it was working. The problem was that he had to know how to adjust the mirrors just right. They were all in small inconspicuous parts of the room, and they were all being carefully manipulated so that they reflected the next mirror perfectly. As carefully as he could, Haku was freezing water in the air and making it aim for Sakura's paper.

Finally, he caught the reflection that he wanted and smiled, just a little.

This Exam was easier than he thought it would have been.

* * *

Naruto was almost about to die from horror. He had no idea what to do, and no skill that would help him. Also, there was a fly buzzing around his head and if he swatted at it, he would probably be marked off for an absolutely terrible attempt at cheating.

The thing even had the audacity to land on his paper and start rubbing its hands together.

It was mocking him!

Naruto's eye twitched.

The stupid little thing began to walk up the paper to where he should have written something and stopped. Then it turned around until it was facing him, and Naruto almost attacked it with a cry of rage. Blast it, he was going to fail a stupid little written test and that bug had to smirk at him about it. There was just something wrong with the whole thing.

At that point, Naruto noticed that it was sinking into his paper to be replaced by words...in his handwriting.

SAI!

Naruto almost would have been willing to take back every mean thing that he had ever said about him, other than the fact that they were still all true. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as all the other bugs began to fly in. Of course, he had forgotten one of the concepts that Tsunade had drilled mercilessly into them in his panic.

It was standard Hakumei practice; know your teammate's weakness and cover for them. Everyone has at least one, and in a group that big, at least one of them would always have a strength in the same area. Naruto wasn't going to be able to create a Kage Bunshin to gather information right under Ibiki's nose, and everyone knew that. Therefore, Sai, who had the best information gathering skill for that situation had helped out. Hakumei was what the teams were really supposed to be; only most of them somehow had gotten caught up in stupid little rivalries to ever work together.

Naruto watched the answers appear, but still felt a little disappointed. He would have liked to have been able to do it on his own, but he shook the feeling off as fast as he could. This wasn't the time for feeling sorry for himself like that. He had other areas where he was better than Sai, and it was stupid to try to be prefect at everything. Even the Hokage had to have people around him who were supposed to help him.

"Yo, maggots," the grating voice of Ibiki cut through the classroom, "put down your pens. If you didn't get the answers by now, you're never going to get them."

There was a shuffling as pencils and pens were put away and mutterings were heard.

"Alright, worms, guess what?" Ibiki asked, not waiting for an answer, "I'm not in a great mood today, so the tenth question is going to have a twist. It's going to be passed out, and if you fail to answer it, not only do you and your team all fail the Exam, but you'll all be forbidden to ever enter another Exam as long as you live."

* * *

**Omake:** Ino's Cheating Method

Ino scanned the room for likely victims of her Jutsu. The pink haired Grass girl looked like good choice; she hadn't even looked up and started writing from the beginning. The Blond Grass guy was cute, but it didn't look like he knew what strategy he was going to use yet. Shikamaru was probably asleep on his desk.

There was a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye, and she noticed the red haired Grass guy writing away. He was in a better position than Emi, the pink haired girl, and that was everything. He was a little more out of the Chuunin's direct line of vision, and Ino didn't want any hints to what she was doing.

Placing her hands in the position that her father had told her, she whispered the name in a breath, and felt the pull that accompanied it.

The guy's mind was a nightmare. There was a very hysterical voice screaming about blood, death, destruction, world catastrophe and...Sugar? Then there was the strangest and most uncomfortable feeling that she would ever feel in her life.

Something was _gnawing_ on his mind!

Immediately, Ino withdrew and suppressed a shudder. That guy was either an absolute homicidal maniac, or he had the world's best defense over his mind.

Maybe both.

At any rate, Ino was going to attempt possessing someone else in hopes of more normalcy...maybe Emi would be a better choice...or maybe that blond kid, he seemed ok...

On second thought, Ino decided to take her chances with her partner...

* * *

_Mudslinging: Even if Konoha is a superpower, I don't think that the foreign ninja would be forbidden from a few insults. It seems like a natural part of competing in these things. _

_Tenten: So, how was she? She's a really minor character, so I don't have too much to work with, and I'm trying to make her a little more deep. She's really having some trouble, as you'll see in later chapters._

_Teammates: I'm being a little lazy as you can see. I didn't really want to give a bunch of names and faces to completely unimportant characters that will probably get killed or just never feature much. Yumi was a bit of an exception, but I totally hate putting OCs into fanfiction. They always end up being too important...and it really annoys me when people give Western names to Naruto OCs. _

_Kabuto: Ok, the manga kind of annoyed me as far as he was concerned. During part 1, he seemed to be a really interesting antagonist and even had the potential of being a protagonist. This kind of character really, really interests me. But during the later chapters, he kind of lost the more interesting aspects of his personality. I'm going to try to do him some justice, and even explain some aspects of him._

_Sora: Yes, this is Sora from the filler, and yes, I know that Sora should have been less emotional, but Danzou had less time to work on him than even on the other academy students. After all, he had to get the kid, make him trust him, and then start to train him, so right now, he's simply fanatically loyal to Danzou. I apologize to any Sora fans who exist. I really need someone to be an antagonist for Naruto, and he's the best choice out there. _

_The Exam: I've seen some people who have changed this test, and some people who haven't. I didn't simply because I didn't see a reason to. Ibiki's test is really stressful enough. Also, how were my cheating methods? I tried to be somewhat logical with this._

_Kimchi: A dish of fermented vegetables. People would bury the veggies and spices for roughly ten years (maybe longer) at about twenty feet deep, and then dig them up for serving to people. The results are very...potent._

_Cheating: I know I was a little short, but most of their methods didn't need too much description. Also, I know that some of you may be slightly disappointed about Naruto, but I really don't see why, as his powers are really made for something like what Ibiki had placed him into, and none of the ideas that I had really fit as well as this one. I still want him to struggle, and even sometimes to fail. Since for one thing, a hero who never fails is really boring, and for another, Naruto is a bit of a loner naturally, and I think it's good for him to have to depend on others._

_Random note: I have a new blog. If you actually care about my rantings and some occasional hints to future things in Hakumei check it out. It's only got two posts right now though, so don't expect too much.  
_

_Thanks for reading!_

_Review!_

_Pryotra_


	17. Part 2: Games and Players

_Author's Corner: Do you guys realize that my baby's a year old now! I'm so proud of it! It's really amazing. This story has really taken off. It's so great. I was a little afraid that I wouldn't get this far. So without anymore of my ranting about how great it is that this thing has been loved for a year, here's the next chapter. I hope this explains a few things and leaves other questions hanging._

_Some ranting about the latest mange chapter: I am in awe. I had been hoping for something like this, but this was just too juicy. Also, all you people who wanted Naruto to rely on the Kyuubi's power, this is why he shouldn't. I knew that it wasn't a good idea, after all, that fox sure wasn't a good thing, and it sure doesn't care that much about Naruto. Why would it? But that scene with the Yondaime and Kyuubi, was perfect for those two characters. I can't wait to see what else Kishi has in store for us. This manga is actually improving again (I didn't really like some of the recent developments. Kakashi, you had better be alive. Also I liked Shizune!)_

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns no part of Naruto or anything connected to it. She does not have any interest in being sued, although she does have an interest in writing fanfiction mostly because she enjoys messing with plots and people's heads._

_Thanks to Ibby-kun (MegaB) for Betaing for me as always._

_The list:_

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**Life is known only by those who have found a way to be comfortable with change and the unknown. Given the nature of life, there may be no security, but only adventure.  
-**_Rachel Naomi Remen

* * *

There was dead silence after that pronouncement, but it quickly gave way to shouts of protest and anger that rang throughout the entire room. Some of the Chuunin winced a little, but most of them looked rather amused.

"You don't have the power to do that!" Someone, a rain Genin, yelled.

"Who do you think you are!" someone else agreed.

Another person, a woman with red hair that Naruto realized was a Grass Genin started to use a very fluent and colorful vocabulary to insult Ibiki, his mother, his father, his pets, and everything else about him or connected to him. Naruto was slightly disconcerted that someone could have that kind of vocabulary and that the she was from the village that he was supposed to be from, and made a mental note to watch the other members, just in case he was going to have to display that kind of vocabulary as well.

He would have to talk to Sai.

Ibiki seemed to find the reactions all rather amusing, and he really didn't seem to care if they insulted him. He started to laugh, soft at first, but then it began to penetrate the entire room.

Silence fell again, and the tension was so thick that Naruto could almost see it floating around certain people's heads.

"Actually, worms, I can do whatever I want," he smirked, "You all signed a legal form giving me the power to do what I want to do. As far as you're concerned, I'm the god in this classroom. Suck it up and do the question, or leave. If you have any doubts about your own ability, go right now, you're going to fail anyways."

Naruto felt a spark of anger rise up but quelled it. There was no reason for him to react, he reminded himself. No reason whatsoever. After all, he wasn't even a real Genin. There was nothing that this guy could do to him or his friends. Still, it was kind of annoying to watch Ibiki bully people around the way he did. No wonder everyone in Kinen had called him a sadist. He actually seemed to be enjoying this.

Naruto noticed suddenly that everyone had fallen into complete silence, even the natural rustle of clothes and breathing seemed to have stopped. The other participants were glancing at one another in a very nervous way; even Shikamaru seemed to be on edge, leaning on the desk. He was actually looking at Ibiki in the face and had gone a shade paler. He knew that the other members weren't going to raise their hands or forfeit, but still, this challenge was really ridiculously extreme. It wasn't like Naruto was dealing with life or death here. It wasn't a mission where he was deciding if he would accept a mission that could kill him...

Or maybe it was just that situation. Their entire career, their 'lives' were on the line. They could accept and go forwards or decline and stay where they were until next year. If they overestimated themselves and lost, then for all practical purposes they would have died on the battle field after taking on a mission that they couldn't handle. There was a kind of sick logic to Ibiki's thoughts that Naruto was starting to see.

He only hoped that he wasn't becoming a sadist too.

Someone raised their hand.

"I'm sorry, Chika, Akito, I can't do this," a downtrodden looking Genin said, looking apologetically at his team, "Let's go again next time."

The other two sighed and nodded, getting up.

"Come on, make up your minds," Ibiki pushed them, glaring, "I don't have all day."

Someone else raised their hand, and a few other people got up and left, all of them looking discouraged and angry. One group was sending rather murderous looks over at Ibiki, but Naruto doubted that the man noticed or cared all that much. This was his job, and he looked like he liked it.

Ibiki looked around, there were still about thirty or so Genin left.

"You lot are looking pretty confident," his eyes fell on Naruto, "What about you, tattoo-face, are you sure that you can handle the question?"

If Ibiki was looking for someone to freak out, he had come to the wrong person. Naruto's eyes narrowed. He wasn't going to shout around like an infant, but he sure wasn't going to be bullied either.

"If I can't go forwards, even if I'm taking a risk, I'm not ready to be a Chuunin," Naruto said, "this time, it's my career, next time it'll be my life. Besides, even if I fail, I'll become the world's most dangerous Genin, and then it really won't matter what rank I'm at, I'll still get assigned the tough missions. Besides, I never thought I'd do well with little kids anyway."

Ibiki smirked, "You sure are confident," was all that he said, he looked around, rounding on another person. One of the girls from Suna, Matsuri was looking like she would have very much loved to raise her hand, but one look at Temari, who gave her a look that said plainly 'If you do it, you're dead' changed her mind. She sat, looking very pale and completely terrified that she was going to stay a Genin forever. Naruto felt sort of sorry for her, but his sympathy was tempered by the fact that if she was going to survive, she had to learn to take risks and have a little bit of confidence. If not, she was going to have to deal with Temari and Kankuro being on her case until the team split up.

Several people left, some of them were even Konoha nin, but Sora's team, Team Ten, and Team Seven didn't move. Sora was looking annoyingly confident and Naruto found himself hoping that he failed, just so Naruto could see that smirk wiped off his face and gloat a little.

Finally, when the room was much emptier than it was when the Exams began and Naruto was starting to wonder if speaking could produce an echo, and Ibiki looked around again, taking in the remaining participants.

"So, you're the only ones left are you?" Ibiki said, "Well then...you're a really confident group you know that? Alright, those of you who stayed...pass."

It took a few seconds for this statement to sink in.

"...But what about the tenth question?" Ino managed out amongst the startled stutters of about five other people whose brains had rebooted faster than the rest.

"That was the tenth question," Ibiki told her, "I am here to test if you have the mental state necessary to be Chuunin. Power is not the only thing that matters. You have to be able to face missions that you may die from, and face chances that you will be tortured for information."

Slowly, and deliberately, Ibiki took off his hat. Naruto's stomach clenched a little. Ibiki's head was covered in knotting scars that ran all along it. Ibiki looked around the room, noting with apparent satisfaction the looks of horror.

"You have to bear that torture," Ibiki continued, "all of you withstood a high amount of mental torture, now we'll see just how well you do with physical tests..."

There was a loud boom and crashing noise, and Ibiki was suddenly blocked off from view by a very large purple banner reading: _Introducing Mitarashi Anko: Beautiful proctor for the second Exam._ A young woman walked out from behind the banner and grinned at the Genin waving a little and winking at a few of them that she seemed to think were good looking. It was one of the members of Kinen, the woman with the short, purple hair and the carefully designed outfit that Naruto had noticed. She surveyed the Genin and grinned at Ibiki as he came out. Not looking the least bit fazed by the sudden entrance.

"Hey, you scared them good, sempai!" she smirked, "There's three less than last time, and here was me thinking you were getting old."

"You're early," Ibiki said stoically.

"So?" Anko shrugged, "You were done. I didn't see any reason to procrastinate. It's not like they're going anywhere and you monologue too much."

Ibiki's eyes narrowed fractionally.

Anko waved again to the entire group, looking cheerful.

"Hello, everyone!" she cried, "I'm the beautiful proctor of the second Exam. I know that all of you are overcome with admiration for my beauty, but unfortunately for you, I've got someone I'm interested in, but if you still really want to try, if you buy me Dango, you might have a chance with me, but not otherwise. Anyways it's my job to explain to you the rules and the purpose of the second Exam so follow me!"

She ran to the window and looked like she was going to jump out of it, but seemed to change her mind and walked out the door where the Chuunin had come in. Everyone else watched her with growing worry, hoping against hope that the Exam wasn't something she chose, since the insane woman might have had them doing pretty much anything from walking a dog through a mine field to jumping off the Hokage Monument.

As they all filed out one by one, Ibiki's eyes trailed a few of the backs. He nodded a little and turned away.

Yes, they definitely weren't Genin level, but they were above the level that his superiors had assumed as well. As a Chuunin passed him on his way out, Ibiki spoke.

"Don't worry; everything is going according to plan,"

* * *

Anko led the little group to a fairly seldom used looking training ground that was both overgrown and gave a slight feeling of danger. Inside of a rusty looking fence there was what seemed to be a very large forest. There wasn't any sound of birds or normal insects coming from it, and they made Naruto feel even more uneasy.

"Welcome to Training Ground 44," Anko called out, "Also known as the Forest of Death!"

Somewhere a cricket chirped as the Genin digested this new information.

"You're joking right?" someone in the crowd asked.

"Of course I'm not!" Anko huffed, "I'm being dead serious. This place is known as the Forest of Death for very good reasons, and guess what? You guys are going to have to get to the center of it! That's the second Exam. This place is going to be your home for the next three days."

There was another period of silence while they waited for her to say that she was joking.

"So we have to navigate this place?" a voice asked, it was a sick looking boy with whitish hair who had a Kusa headband, "Shouldn't be too hard."

"Oh no, brat," Anko's eyes glittered. Without warning she had thrown a kunai that nearly hit him in the face. As it was, it only glanced by, drawing a little blood. The boy didn't have time to react before Anko was right behind him, with another kunai at his throat, "I love dealing with overconfident kids." Anko said, licking her lips a little and grinning, "They're always the first ones to get themselves killed in battle."

The boy, who already was a couple shades too pale, almost as pale as Sai, went a shade paler. He seemed really surprised that a Special Jounin had the ability to do that. Naruto was glad he hadn't opened his big mouth. What would have been worse was that he would have dodged it on instinct, leading up to very awkward questions since no Genin should have been able to dodge that attack.

"Hey, lady," a crabby voice called, as the red haired Grass Genin glared, "Aren't you supposed to tell us the rules, not kill us?"

Anko giggled again, "Opps, how silly of me..." she turned around, but not before another kunai had flown by the girl, slicing off a small piece of hair, "Back to business! Alright, kiddies, you have to sign a waiver, since there's a really, really good chance you're going to get killed. Then you'll be given one of two scrolls. The scrolls are either Heaven or Earth, and you need both so that you can pass. This Exam will divide the number of teams in half, since in order to get the opposite scroll you have to take if from another team. Get it?"

"What are the rules?" Sai asked.

"Don't die," Anko said, smiling.

"At first I was glad to be rid of Ibiki," Haku whispered, "but now I really miss him,"

"Me too," Sakura agreed.

"You all get an hour to rest up, sign your waiver, or leave. After that, the second Exam begins. As far as food goes, you'll have to use your knowledge of survival camping. The forest is a treasure trove of food and resources, if you know how to get them. Good luck, kiddies, at the sound of the bell you get going! Don't die on me!"

With that and a final cheerful wave, the insane woman calmly walked to a tent where a few people sat with scrolls and official looking papers.

"This should be an interesting Exam," Anko said to herself as she sat down, "I can't wait to tell him all about it. He should be thrilled to know that his favorite did so well. Even Ibiki looked as impressed as Ibiki can look."

* * *

Zabuza wouldn't have known that the two who had turned up late had Genjutsu around them if he hadn't been listening to Sakura explaining it to Naruto, who seemed to have some kind of mental block there when it wasn't for the purpose of embarrassing someone, how to see one. There was a very, very slight shimmer to the shadow of the person that most people wouldn't even look at. Both of them had it.

Well, the Sound Jounin was creepy enough, with his long black hair and almost predatory eyes, to scare him slightly. The Grass Jounin was about Zabuza's age, and he was...well...big. He probably ate like a horse, or an elephant. Zabuza found himself wondering just how he used that weight to his advantage. Zabuza himself had always relied on being both fast and strong, never either alone.

They had come in without saying too much, other than introducing themselves as Tanaka Hibiki from Sound and Fukui Tarou from Grass. Neither had participated much in the annual 'complain about the students' conversation. Tarou had grumbled that the girl in the group acted like a man, but Hibiki didn't say much of anything. Naturally, Zabuza was immediately put on his guard against the man more so than Tarou, who gave him the mental image of what any of the members of Hakumei would be like if they were posing as an instructor: quiet, a little nervous, working a little too hard at not raising suspicion. Zabuza had been something like an instructor once, so he knew what he was doing, and the same went for Hibiki. Therefore, on Zabuza's list of people who were threats, Hibiki ranked higher than Tarou, but not by too much.

Also, Tarou and he were both supposed to at least have some sort of dealings with one another, and both of them were using an excuse for not knowing. Zabuza's excuse of being anti-social checked out since there was always one person who didn't have anything to do with anyone. Tarou was a little late to the party, but he had saved himself by saying that he had heard of him but had never seen him in person. That would mean that he had either been sent later, been sent information about the mission, or was lying through his teeth.

Zabuza would have bet his Kubikiri Hocho that it was the third one.

So, they weren't the only ones playing games here. There seemed to be more going on during this Exam than met the eye. Zabuza suddenly had the impression of a game where there were an unknown number of players who were all only somewhat aware of one another and all attempting to achieve a slightly different purpose. They were all playing though, and Konoha was the prize. Zabuza wondered just how many people were playing, and just what everyone was after. There was the Hakumei/Kinen alliance that was after the same thing at the moment, Danzou, the fake Grass nin, and the Sound nin. Any one of them might be allied with someone else.

Oh, yes, Zabuza thought, this was ninja life at its fullest. He had no idea who his real enemies were, and the only people who he could somewhat trust were a group of kids. The irony was amazing and kind of disgusting at the same time.

Zabuza was never going to take job offers from shady business men again; it got him involved in major conspiracies that he had hoped to never be involved in. After all, the one he had been in with had worked out so _well._

If Gato wasn't dead already, Zabuza would have killed him.

The door opened and a man wearing a Chuunin uniform walked in.

"Hatake Kakashi, Maitou Gai, Ueda Baki, Motou Seto, Yukimara Nanashi, Kenshin Honda, Yuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, Niwa Satoshi, Tanaka Hibiki, Fukui Tarou, Tou Tsukiko, and Himura Mai, congratulations on your Genin's passing the first Exam. Please be at the site specified on the map in three days time. If you'll excuse me I must go to room 676 and speak to those waiting there," the man said, bowing and left.

Everyone started to get up to go without too many goodbyes, and Zabuza found himself looking straight into the amber eyes of Hibiki, who seemed to be sizing him up. For the first time in a very long time Zabuza found himself feeling truly uneasy. This man was a killer. What was worse, there was something...off...about him. Almost as if there was a film over his eyes and it actually sent a slight shiver up his spine that he hadn't felt for a very long time. Not since the time when he had faced the Mizukage for the last time.

Hibiki broke eye contact, and Zabuza felt the feeling leave him. He watched the Sound Jounin as he walked away, but didn't turn away.

There was no way on this planet that he was going to expose his backside to that man.

* * *

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura sat down after signing their waivers, and waited for the others. They had received a Heaven scroll, and were looking around to see just who had Earth scrolls. After all, it never hurt to know who to track down later.

"So, psycho-woman wants us to be in the center in three days," Sasuke said thoughtfully, that means that it's going to be an all out war in there. Everyone's going to probably go for us or the other young Genin."

"Well, it'll be fun," Sakura smiled, "I'll enjoy seeing the shock on their faces."

"It's a waste of time," Sasuke disagreed.

"What's the hurry?" Sakura asked.

"Guys..." Naruto sighed, "I can't believe I'm acting as the semi-sane voice of reason, but we need to keep ourselves under control. If I start throwing Rasengan around people are going to wonder just where I learned it. Masaru, you can't use your kekkei genkai at all, Emi....people are going to wonder just who taught you those techniques. We have to act somewhat normal."

"Taiki's right," Sasuke agreed, "we have to control ourselves or the whole thing's blown."

"Yeah, yeah," Sakura sighed, "Killjoys,"

"So, you're one of the other Kusa teams that they sent," a voice said, "We'd heard there was a couple."

It was the foulmouthed redhead that had tried to curse Ibiki out and her team. The sickly looking boy seemed to have recovered from Anko's attack, and another dark haired boy in a very...lumpy...shirt was with them. They were all only a little older than they were, but Naruto could tell they were hiding their true power as well. Probably until they were in the Forest.

"Yeah," Sakura nodded, "Our psycho Sensei signed us up at the last minute."

"Our tub of lard didn't do much better," the girl said darkly, and muttered some other, more unpleasant things about their sensei.

"Kiyoko, knock it off," the brown haired boy grumbled.

"Shut your trap, Aoi," Kiyoko snarled, "if I want to call that total-crap-for-brains a transvestite, I will, and I'd like to see you try to stop me."

"This is a sign of your repression again," the pale boy sneered, "I told you that that I'd be happy..."

The only response was a very loud very long procession of swear words.

"What is this harmonious sound I hear?" Sai's voice asked as he, Hinata, Gaara, Haku, Kimimaro and Neji came up, "How is it that we missed one another?"

"Be careful, Hideaki," Kimimaro said in an amused voice, "she might bite your head off."

"Really?" Sai looked surprised, "I knew that they could suck out your soul..."

Kiyoko gave them all a very dark look, but didn't do anything. She seemed to be thinking over what fate would await them when they were alone in the woods. The other two were smirking a little bit, looking over at their female teammate thoughtfully.

Despite the lightness of the situation, Naruto felt a little uneasy. Kusa hadn't told them anything about sending a new team. It looked like he was going to have to send a message asking about this, and the names of the Genin. Naruto would bet almost anything that they would have never heard of anyone of them before in their lives.

"I'll bite your head off, you-" Kiyoko began to Kimimaro, but he interrupted her.

"And I'd let you," Kimimaro grinned at her, "I don't hit girls."

"You chauvinistic pig!" Kiyoko muttered, "I'll make you regret that!"

"Looks like your friend has some real social skills," the pale boy said to Naruto, "Especially with the ladies. I don't think I've seen her want to kill someone so bad in a while now."

"You should see him on ghost story night," Sakura smirked, "He's a scream."

"Well, we just wanted to introduce ourselves since we're all from the same village," the pale boy said, "That's Kiyoko, as you've found out, that guy over there is Aoi, and I'm Ren. But just because we're from the same village shouldn't mean that we can't fight if worst comes to worst."

"Understandable," Sasuke agreed, "We'll avoid one another, since there are plenty of pickings, but if you're the only people we find, and we still need our scroll..."

"I'm glad we can get along," Ren smirked, "It's nothing personal."

"Absolutely not," Sasuke agreed.

Naruto wished that the bell would sound. This was making him more and more uncomfortable. It was fine when he had been with the Konoha teams, but this group just seemed wrong. Maybe they were too much alike, or maybe they were too different. Naruto didn't really know.

He noticed Kabuto sitting alone, reading a book, and probably waiting for the bell to ring. He was a strange one too, but Naruto didn't feel that he was too dangerous, at least not yet. Team 7 would occasionally look over at them, but Naruto ignored them. Actually, they had a Heaven Scroll, so they weren't a group that Naruto had to think about. That was Kimimaro, Haku and Neji. The Suna team was sitting apart from everyone else in a small circle. Naruto knew that they were probably planning who they were going to go after, and he hoped that it wasn't Gaara's team.

Gaara had already told them that Temari and Kankuro were his siblings. It would probably be hard on him to have to fight them. Gaara seemed to have liked them quite a bit. At least, he had known they were afraid of him, but they had never said anything hurtful.

"Hey!" a voice called over too them, and Naruto noticed Ino motioning to Haku, Hinata, and Sakura. Leaning forwards, Naruto decided to listen in.

"I've been thinking," Ino was saying, "Since there are three of you and four of them, there's one extra right? I'll even let you guys make the first picks."

Sakura and Hinata looked over at Haku, who had kind of groaned.

"Um...Ryou's a guy..." Sakura muttered.

"What!" Ino looked him over and eyes widened, "I am so sorry." she said nervously, "Really, I had no idea. You...I...um...this is really awkward..."

"It's alright..." Haku sighed, "I'm used to it..."

Ino was spared any further shock or embarrassment by the sudden buzzing of the bell. All the teams were on their feet and had jumped into the woods in an instant.

The second Exam had begun.

* * *

The wagon bumped harshly, making a grating sound that set Tsunade's teeth on edge. She hadn't really wanted to come in the open like this, but Jiraiya had insisted, saying that they were too well known not to bring attention to themselves. If they were going to sneak in, it was going to look suspicious. Besides, Tsunade knew all too well that they were already under some suspicion since they had never aided Konoha when it went to war against Iwa.

The guards at the two huge doors took their passports uninterestedly, and then did a double take when they saw the names. They stared up at the two people standing before them and saluted.

"Welcome back to Konoha, Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama," Uchiha Hiro said, "Hokage-sama has given the guards the order that if you two should ever return to ask you to please see him as soon as you are able to."

"I plan to do just that," Tsunade said calmly, "Konoha has been through some changes I see."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama," Hiro said proudly, "Konoha is not anything like the weak city that you once knew."

That was obvious to the most casual observer. Almost as obvious as Danzou's giant head sticking out of the Hokage Monument. Her first order of business would be to remove it.

Jiraiya and Tsunade passed on through the city, not stopping or speaking to anyone. A few people recognized them, but most didn't. It had been a very long time since either had been in Konoha, and Tsunade was taking each step as if the ground was somehow tainted.

"Don't to that," Jiraiya reprimanded her, "You look like you're not happy to be here."

"I'm not happy to be here," Tsunade struck back, "I just wish that Shizune was here..."

"She's busy and you know that," Jiraiya replied.

Tsunade nodded, wishing that she wasn't there, but reminding herself what she was doing. This was for Sarutobi-sensei. The man who had been like a father to herself and her two 'brothers'. It was a pathetic, broken family, but still, some part of her hung on to that.

"You haven't been here since Orochimaru's defection have you?" Jiraiya asked, "Well, just so you know, the hot springs are a whole lot nicer and they're even harder to get close to."

"That wouldn't stop you, and you know it," Tsunade rolled her eyes, "but no, I vowed to never set foot here again unless it was all three of us who did. Another broken vow in a long line of broken vows."

"You can't blame yourself, Tsunade," Jiraiya said his voice taken on a more serious tone for once; "No one knew he was going to do that. I saw him after he had defected. He was like a completely different person. Even his summon was different. He uses Manda now."

Tsunade nodded wordlessly, "I guess we only thought that we knew him."

"Hey, cheer up," Jiraiya grinned, "We need to put on a good face for old one eye, now don't we!"

Tsunade looked at that stupid grinning face and sighed. It was the same face that had once told her that he would protect her until he died. The same face that he told her that she could send him a love letter later. The same face that had promised that the team would last forever.

Tsunade was such a sap.

She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. They were a pair of old fools who had never grown up, and were doomed to be shackled by memories. Maybe Hakumei would do better, but she doubted it. When you gave your heart to a group or a person, part of you died with that group or person. For all of their sakes, Tsunade prayed that just once things would go right, and they would grow old and die with one another around them. Just like they were supposed do. Like Minato's team seven was supposed to.

They stopped at the Hokage building. Looking at it, a flood of memories greeted Tsunade. This was a place she was very familiar with. She had grown up going there all the time. Sometimes it had been to hide from her family, other times it had been for missions. Like that stupid cat one. The ancestor of that day's Tora had been a terror. She, Jiraiya and Orochimaru had had to catch that thing fifty times. Finally Orochimaru and Jiraiya had said quite plainly that if they had to catch that thing one more time they were going to take it to the Valley of the End and let it go free. Anything that wanted to get away as much as it did deserved the chance.

The pair walked up the stairs, noticing the new paint and the fact that the guards were all Uchiha. Sasuke must have been having a very hard time adjusting to the notion that his family were Danzou's loyal followers. The two guards who were on duty both started and saluted as they passed. It looked like even in Danzou's Konoha, the Legendary Sannin still held tremendous respect.

"Tsunade-sama, Jiraiya-sama, if you would please wait, I'll inform Hokage-sama that you're here," a nervous looking Chuunin said, almost running out of the room. He apparently was new at his job and wasn't used to the visitors of the Hokage. It was rather refreshing to see a display of emotion, no matter how foolish. This whole place seemed to have become nothing more than a mine field. If they made one misstep, it would cost them their lives.

Tsunade sat down in one of the chairs with Jiraiya next to her. He slowly started to edge his hand over to her waist, and Tsunade calmly took it and laid it on the table in front of them. She gave him a pointed look and ignored it.

"So, what do you think he wants?" Tsunade asked, refraining from any nicknames since she was sure that Danzou was probably listening in.

"I don't know, but it will probably have something to do with the exams, and it might have to do with why we didn't aid them in the war against Iwa," Jiraiya said thoughtfully, snaking his hand towards her again.

Tsunade caught the hand and placed it back on the table.

"I don't know why it matters, officially we're both retired," she said, "and if he thinks that I'm going to leave it, he's going to be disappointed."

"On the contrary, Tsunade-hime," a calm voice said from the doorway, "I think that I will be making you both an offer that neither of you will be able to refuse."

Both of them looked up to see Danzou, who was standing in the doorway.

He hadn't changed much since the last time that they had seen him. Even though he was wearing the robes of the Hokage, he still walked on that stick, and the bandages hid his face as much as ever. The largest change was the Hokage hat that he now wore with a sort of gloating pride. Slowly, Danzou walked into the room, leaning on his stick and giving a sense of complete power despite it.

"Hello, Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-hime," Danzou said, using the honorifics more as a formality than anything else, he hated both of them, "I'm glad to see that you have finally returned to your home city. It has been quite some time since both of you were here together has it not?"

"I was here about six or seven years ago," Jiraiya shrugged, "but my duties to my readers forced me to stay away."

"I see," was the only answer that Danzou gave, "and you, Tsunade-hime?"

"Last time I checked, I was retired," Tsunade said, "I don't have to come here unless I want to."

"Ah, that is where things have changed," Danzou said, "I'm sure that you've noticed the visible changes around Konoha."

"Like the fact that the ANBU has been disbanded, the uniform is now completely mandatory, and Konoha has been divided into a civilian's sector and a ninja sector?" Jiraiya asked.

"Precisely," Danzou nodded, "the ANBU had fallen in their standards, the use of flashy clothes was making the youth more interested in their personal lives than performing their missions, and the civilians are safer in a contained area that the ninja can protect."

"I see," Tsunade said. "And what does this have to do with my retirement? I just wanted to come and see how the next generation fared."

Danzou sat down in the seat opposite them and leaned on his stick. He looked every inch the concerned Hokage. If Tsunade hadn't had an old acquaintance with the man, she would have believed him. Since she did know him, Tsunade knew that he was preparing to try to convince them to join him in whatever he was trying to do.

"Konoha is still at war, Tsunade-hime," Danzou said, "The Sandaime left many things to decay, and did not pay attention to threats. He valued peace far too much, and as such he allowed enemies who should have been stopped quickly to flourish. I am not referring to Kumo, as I am sure you are supposing. I am referring to Oto."

"Sound?" Jiraiya asked, "I know that they are violent and they are very secretive, but as of yet they haven't shown themselves to be a force worth mentioning. It's a new village that's only existed for around ten years, roughly. What makes them into a threat?"

"It seems that your information system is not as good as you think," Danzou gave a thin smile, "Do you know who the leader of Oto is?"

"My network is not focused on small villages," Jiraiya said, "I am more interesting in monitoring the teams that are running around lately."

"I see, and I will ask you more on that later," Danzou said, "But to the matter at hand: Oto's leader is none other than Orochimaru, your former teammate."

Tsunade sat up a little straighter, and didn't even notice that Jiraiya had taken that moment to get his hand around her waist again. Orochimaru? She had known that he was plotting revenge against Konoha for something that she didn't really comprehend, but that he had made his own village...

"This is the first time that they had sent applicants to the Chuunin Exam. The team that he has sent seem perfectly normal and all of their files are in order as well as their Jounin sensei, but I have heard rumors that Orochimaru himself may be in Konoha even now. His motives are completely unknown, but I have my own reasons for not hunting him down."

His eye glittered.

"I wish to draw him out. The Fire Daimyo does not wish for us to attack Oto because he sees it as an unprovoked attack. If we allow Orochimaru to do as he wishes, we will be allowed to secure him and destroy Oto, two threats will have been eliminated. I had hoped that you both would come since the laws must be fulfilled. When a ninja who had defected is caught, they must of executed by the remaining members if his former team and family. By doing so, those who execute prove their loyalty."

"We will do what's necessary, Hokage," Jiraiya said, "I personally don't have a lot of feeling left for the psycho. I never much liked him anyways."

Tsunade noticed that Jiraiya's hand was around her waist and placed it on the table.

"Good," Danzou said, "I did not think there would be objections from either of you. Now, Jiraiya-sama, recently, a Genin team on a mission to Wave Country, encountered something very strange. It was a ninja team that we had never heard of before. They concealed their faces, and their uniforms were reminiscent of the late Yondaime. The group referred to themselves as Hakumei. As monitoring ninja teams is your specialty, I'm sure that you have some information on them."

"Hakumei?" Jiraiya said thoughtfully, "Oh, yes, Hakumei. They are a new group; they only appeared around six months or so ago. Their motives seem to be to simply get work. They recruited local people to aid them and to send messages concerning missions and payment. The identities of the members are unknown, but there are nine of them."

"It's interesting how they have the same number as another ninja group who also has unknown identities. Akatsuki. Is there a chance that the two are connected?"

Tsunade almost let the relief show in her eyes. Jiraiya put his hand around Tsunade's waist.

"I don't think that is the case," Tsunade said, as she removed Jiraiya's hand, "The two don't seem to have any connection with one another, but I suppose that one can never be too careful."

"Jiraiya, make an inquiry in your network to see who, if anyone has defected from all the villages during the last three years. This group is almost certainly missing nin," Danzou ordered, forgetting to put 'sama' at the end of his name, "I am sorry to tell you this, but your retirement ends now."

"What do you want us to do in the meantime," Tsunade asked.

"I would like you both to keep an eye on the exams and all of the participants. There are many foreign ninja this time, and you should know that they can't always be trusted. Even the young ones. During the war with Iwa there were many children who killed many adult ninja."

"We were such children during the last war," Tsunade said, "I killed when I was twelve, on my first C-rank mission. Or have you forgotten?"

"Of course not, I merely wanted to remind you that you are not dealing with children. You are dealing with enemy nin. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Of course, Hokage," Jiraiya said, "We'll do what we must, for the sake of Konoha."

"I'm glad to see that your love for this city has not diminished," Danzou told them, "There were some in the council who wished me to declare you both missing nin and set a bounty on your heads. I am pleased to know that my faith in you has not been misplaced."

"We cared very deeply for Sarutobi-sensei," Jiraiya said, "When we received news of his death; there were many things that we needed to think over."

"Of course," Danzou agreed, every inch showing compassion, "I'm sure that you have made your decision to do your best to honor your Sensei and create a Konoha that is strong and prosperous is what he would have wanted."

"There's something else that we intend to do," Tsunade said, "We will avenge his death. The ones responsible were never captured, am I right?"

"Yes, it seems that most of Iwa had little to no idea, or so they claim," Danzou said, there was no tone in his voice, "So you wish to kill those responsible do you not?"

"Yes," Jiraiya said, "That is the main reason why we are here. To help rebuild Konoha, and to avenge the death of Sarutobi-sensei."

A thin smile appeared on Danzou's lips, "You're dismissed. You will find that your old quarters are still there, and prepared for your return. I will send any other orders by the hand of one of the Jounin. Welcome back to Konoha."

Jiraiya and Tsunade both bowed and left the room, without any more words.

Danzou remained there for quite some time watching the place where they had been. His face was completely unreadable, but there was still a small, thin smile on his face. The kind one would give if one was amused my something.

* * *

**Omake:** Young Love

Konohamaru was impatient at the best of times, but today he was about ready to just run the second that his teacher's back was turned. It wasn't like he was really interested in the flaws in the policies of the Yondaime, and why he was a poor choice. He had better things to do than to worry about stuff about people who were long since dead.

At long last the bell rang, and Konohamaru was out of his seat and out the door in flash. He ignored the greetings from his friends Moegi and Udon, mostly because neither of them would understand the terrible importance of what he was doing.

Once he mastered this move and showed it to the boss, he would learn an even better move, and then everyone would have to bow to his greatness. Even the great Danzou would have to resign.

Konohamaru stopped when he found a place that seemed like a good one to start practicing his ultimate technique. It was a forest clearing, fairly close to the Hyuuga Complex. No one came there much, making it an ideal place for him to practice the technique. After all, if people saw what he was doing, they would try to stop him, not understanding the vital importance of his mission.

He looked around again. No one.

"Excellent," Konohamaru said, grinning and forming the pattern that his boss had shown him, "Oiroke no Jutsu!"

There was a puff of smoke, but before Konohamaru could examine the fruits of his labor, there was a scream.

"You filthy pervert!" A young girl's voice screamed, "Jyuken!"

Konohamaru would have done best to have made sure that no one was using the Hyuuga training ground before he used that technique. As it was, Hyuuga Hanabi never saw the great significance in Konohamaru's work and proclaimed to her dying day that when Konohamaru was young, he was a little pervert who had gotten his just desserts for going to a sacred spot to spy on her, and to perform a stupid, perverted justu.

* * *

_And so ends another chapter. This one was another filler, mostly to show the Sennin and the other Grass team. I didn't really like this chapter, but I thought that it was necessary. I don't really like moving too fast. I think that if I have nonstop action and a twisty plot, I might lose track of my own story._

_Also, what is Ibiki up to and whose side is he on? It seems that everyone has some kind of hidden agenda in this Exam. _

_Well, I'm not going to tease you anymore. I'll have the next chapter us as soon as I can, and I hope that you've liked this one._

_Ibiki's final question: If you notice, Anko says that he _has_ less people that stayed than last year. This is because Naruto didn't get angry and give inspiration to the other people. Since he remained silent, more people left. Naruto really has an effect on people doesn't he?_

_Anko: She's a surprisingly hard character to write, I hope I have her in character. Yes, the guy she's interested in is Iruka. Also, yes, I am showing a little more of her power than is usually shown. As a Special Jounin it means that she has some qualifications or she is Jounin level at one thing. From what I've seen of her, she is an attack specialist, whereas someone like Ibiki would be more of a tactics of psychological warfare specialist._

_The Grass Genin: I hope that that's answered any questions about who they are. As you can see, the Chuunin Exam is going to be a little on the wild side._

_Danzou and the Sannin's conversation: This was something I envisioned as three people dancing around one another trying to sound like they weren't really interested in the odds, but all trying to fulfill a very specific goal. Also, if you notice, the Sannin never, ever lied to Danzou. They just never told him everything that they knew._

_The Law: It really only makes sense, and also, if you look at some of the later manga chapters, (Spoilers) it makes a reason for why Itachi was the one chosen to execute the Uchiha clan. A rather brutal rule, but this is an extremely military society. It makes a lot of sense to me that they would have a rule like this. _

_Translations_

_Kubikiri Hocho: Decapitating Carving Knife_

_Hime- princess. A term of extreme respect for a lady of rank. Since Tsunade is the granddaughter of the first, she is seen as something of a princess._

_Thank you everyone for your patience, and thank you for a year of good times! Here's to another year!_

_Review!_

_Pryotra  
_


	18. Part 2: In the Forest of Death

_Author's Corner: The Naruto fanfiction muse has returned to me! I'm sure you haven't noticed, but I've been focused mainly on the outline I have than anything else. _

_I had a really memorable experience a few days ago...I ended up watching the dubbed version of Naruto. I usually only see the subtitled version on the net, so this was a bit of a new experience. I was horrified. First of all, for some reason Naruto's name was pronounced as Nar-RU-to, which was annoying, and then there was that 'believe it'. I really felt like screaming "It's dattebayo, noobs!" or something like that at the screen, but that would have been seen as weird. Seriously, 4kids and everyone associated with them should die. They all but murder a good series. So, I ask all of you, for your sanity: just say no to dubbing. The original is always superior. _

_Code Geass was the same way. I swear, my friend was like "let us all point and laugh at Lulu's voice!" Where do they find these people to do the voice-overs? Do they pay them to sound corny or something?_

_And don't mention openings and closings._

_As you all can see, I usually don't watch TV, I watch the Internet. _

_This chapter is a little more action oriented than others I've written, so it ought to be interesting._

_Random note: No one noticed my reference to MegaB's Konoha: Naruto's Playground in the last chapter. It was the mention of jumping off the Hokage Monument. _

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns no part of any manga, anime or book series. She does get credit for the plot and any original characters, but she doubts that anyone wants them._

_Thanks to Ibby-kun (MegaB) for being my Beta. _

_The list:_

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.  
**_

_**-Jimmy Carter**_

* * *

The Forest of Death was an old part of Konoha, and it had been carefully grown, pruned and cultivated so that it would be as deadly as it was possible to be. Hinata remembered that her father had once told her about it, but now the lesson was impossible for her to remember. It had been too long ago. Tsunade hadn't told them much about it only that usually, going through the Forest of Death was part of the Exams.

The real shock had been the fact that the only rule was as Anko-san had said so plainly: Don't die. That was easier said than done.

The entire forest was a death trap. There were bloodsucking leeches living in some trees, plants that could throw poison darts and eat carcasses, animals that would attack anything that moved, and, of course, if the environment wasn't dangerous enough, the other contestants were. Hinata knew perfectly well that she was facing all out war right now. The Chuunin Exams were, in reality, an organized form of war between all the countries, which was why they all would participate unless there was open war going on, even those who did not particularly like one another.

The jungle-like landscape that they were in just added to the danger. Since the trees grew large and thick, it was easy to lay traps, but on the other hand, one was able to light a fire without people seeing at a long distance. Hinata did hope that there weren't any animals that were...too big.

Hinata jumped to another tree branch and looked at the other two. Gaara could keep going almost all day. Like Naruto, he had something inside him with pretty much unlimited energy. Sai wasn't that lucky and neither was she. They would have to rest eventually, and that was when they would be attacked.

Hinata activated the Tenshi Byakugan and looked around. There was a group of Waterfall nin following them from a distance, but they looked like they were debating about whether to attack or not. They were smart then. The smarter ninja understood that a younger opponent in this Exam was here for a reason. It was best not to underestimate a single person.

"Is there anyone following us, and are they in range?" Gaara asked.

Hinata was the unofficial leader of Team Shugo just as Kimimaro led Team Kekkei Genkai and Naruto was leader of Hakumei and Team Dattebayo. It wasn't an official rank; it was just that she was the person who would think quickly enough to lead. Also, the Tenshi Byakugan gave her the ability to see things that the others couldn't.

"No, I don't see anyone," Hinata said, scanning a little harder, "Not for at least five hundred meters."

"Good, then I can call you Hinata," Sai said, "it gets hard to remember to call you Rei all the time, and Hinata is much prettier."

"Are you flitting with her?" Gaara asked.

"No," Sai said, "Why would I flirt with someone who isn't interested in me? I'm telling the truth."

"Alright," Gaara said, "I wanted to make sure. Sometimes you confuse me."

"I confuse everyone," Sai smiled, "It's actually fun, you should try it sometime."

"Both of you," Hinata said sternly, "This isn't the time for this."

"Sorry," Sai said, looking a little sheepish.

"Now, we have to formulate a plan," Gaara said, "One that preferably doesn't involve my simply allowing 'Sandy Wandy' to run around killing every single person within range."

"I think we should get it over with as fast as we can," Sai said, "Three days isn't all that long."

"No, it isn't," Hinata agreed, "I'll look for someone with the Heaven scroll, and we can take them out. After that, we can make our way to the center."

"Sounds good," Gaara agreed, "But you have to make sure to keep the Tenshi Byakugan a secret. Even the teams that fail can still be a problem. The same goes for both Sai and me, we have to keep our abilities to a low roar. We don't want people wondering why we're at least Chuunin class opponents."

"Of course not," Hinata smiled. This looked like it was going to work perfectly.

"So, I would say that you two, particularly Sai, should battle. I will watch for reinforcements and act as a medic, Gaara, would you be so kind as to be Sai's backup. Because your sand will come up and defend you even if you don't want it, you should keep yourself out of the main battle."

Gaara nodded, he liked that position anyway. Gaara didn't like to be a main fighter if he could help it. It probably had something to do with the fact that the Shukaku wanted to kill as many people as it could, and Gaara was always holding it back. He had it even harder than Naruto. At least Kyuubi had no power to control Naruto. At least, none that Hinata had ever seen. The seal that held Kyuubi was a masterpiece. It really would have taken even Hinata time to remove it.

Hinata smiled and looked around again. It looked like there was someone coming their way.

"Well, it appears that we're going to get lucky this time," Hinata said with a smile, "Someone is coming after us. Shall we wait for them or prepare for their arrival?"

"Let's wait," Sai said, "It would be a little more interesting to see what they can do, or at least what they think that they can do."

Hinata felt the slight change in the air that meant a genjutsu and nodded to the others. She would break it at the moment when it would be the most inconvenient for the enemy.

Yes, the Chuunin Exams were a deadly business.

* * *

Kimimaro looked over to Neji, who nodded once. They seemed to have reached an area where the infamous bloodsucking leeches lived in droves. Neji's eyes were an enormous help in this situation since they had to be very careful which tree they jumped on. There didn't seem to be any opponents left, but Kimimaro wasn't too worried. The weaker ones would be picked off quickly, and while Kimimaro had no problem with getting rid of minor annoyances, he would rather eliminate any serious competition early on.

The first on his mental list was the team of Kusa Genin that had just sprung up out of nowhere. He had sent the messenger hawk to Kusa telling them about what he had seen and asking for a description of the Genin who had set out from Kusa. He was sure that it was someone else. That meant there was another player in this game. One Hakumei knew nothing about.

Next came the Genin team with that Uchiha girl. Something about her seemed off, and Sai had looked upset after their fight. He hadn't said anything, probably because he wasn't sure if what he had seen was real or just a trick of some kind, but Kimimaro hadn't liked the way that she had acted. He hadn't spent the entire time in Wave playing with his bone structure and learning that he had no mechanical ability whatsoever. He had attempted to be fairly close to those Genin when they spoke. Kiba wasn't a threat. The most that kid would do was annoy people. Shino could be a threat, but Kimimaro couldn't quite read him. Yumi was a threat. She was too calm, too sure of herself and too willing to follow orders. Even him, one of the eldest of the group, would question orders every once in a while.

She wasn't what she seemed.

Finally on the list was that Sora kid. For Danzou to take a personal interest in anyone was something to be wary of. Just what was so special about him that Danzou, who from what he had heard wouldn't bother with anyone who wasn't the most powerful, would train?

"Neji, do you see anything?" Kimimaro asked, breaking the silence. None of them had said anything since they had set out.

"Other than leeches?" Neji asked.

"I thought I saw someone being attacked by them earlier, but that doesn't help us very much," Haku said, he seemed to be in one of his worse temperaments after being referred to as a girl by that blonde girl, Ino or something like that.

Kimimaro nodded and continued moving as quickly as he could, "We need to be careful. I doubt that we're the only above-level team taking this Exam. Neji, you're the only one who needs to be careful with your kekkei genkai. You've trained to fight without using it though. It shouldn't be too much of a problem."

Neji nodded. Tsunade had made sure that none of them ever relied too much on their kekkei genkai, since they never knew what would happen. Kimimaro himself would get tired after too much time using his and even, sometimes, using it at all. Tainted Blood had not been something to write off as a minor disease.

Neji stopped suddenly and stayed on a branch, looking to the side of the direction they had been going in, his expression surprised and a little unsure. It was dark under the trees, so Kimimaro couldn't see too far in any direction, vaguely he wondered how Konoha had managed to grow a jungle in that climate, but pushed the though aside. That was the kind of conversation meant for when they were all together and safe.

"What is it, Neji?" Kimimaro asked, "Do you see a team?"

"Well, yes and no," Neji said his voice a little shocked, "I think we need to investigate."

Haku sent a worried look at the two of them. This was not Neji's usual tone. He usually seemed completely confident in his abilities to the point of overconfidence. Now he sounded like he wasn't quite sure of what they saw.

Kimimaro nodded, changing his direction and leading the way towards whatever Neji had seen. After about a minute of moving, he stopped. A slight queasy feeling in his stomach.

Whoever they had been, they weren't a team anymore. They had been three people, and someone or some_thing_ had torn them limb from limb. There was blood everywhere and shreds of clothing and...parts were scattered around. Already, there were ravens around eating the carnage.

Kimimaro jumped to the ground, scattering the ravens and looking around for any kind of evidence as to what had done this. The bodies were scattered around in a small clearing and from the looks of it, they had been a Rain team. Amongst the bloody remains there was a Rain hitai-ite, mostly ripped up. Kimimaro couldn't see any kunai or tags, so they must have been taken by surprise. Their scroll was also missing, so it was an opponent.

"Undergrowth has been crushed, the bodies dismembered, some trees have scratches on them," Haku said in the calm, cold voice that was reserved for situations like this one, "I would have thought it was an animal judging by the viciousness, but I don't see a scroll."

"Neither do I," Neji nodded.

"We need to contact the others are soon as we can," Kimimaro said, his heart in his throat, "They need to know this. There's at least one ninja out there who's capable of this scale of killing, and they're going to be in the Exams."

For the first time since he entered the Exams, Kimimaro was actually worried.

He hoped the others were alright.

* * *

Team Dattebayo made its way very quickly through the forest, looking for any team. Sasuke's Sharingan wasn't able to see things like the Byakugan, so they were at a little more of a disadvantage than the other two teams. That meant that they would have to either lure someone in or wait for an attack. The chances that they would happen upon one another with neither one aware of the other were somewhere less than zero.

Naruto looked around for the one-hundredth time.

"Oh, come on, Naruto," Sasuke said, "If those Kusa nin had decided to follow us, they would have shown up by now. There didn't seem to be a subtle bone in most of their bodies."

"Or are you more worried about Danzou's little favorite?" Sakura asked.

Naruto grinned a little, "Well I'd be lying if I didn't think that he was dangerous, but it's more of a combination of everything. Also, I'm wondering if Baa-chan and Ero-sennin made it here alright."

"I'm sure they're fine," Sakura said, "Unless the old perv decided to take a detour that took him past the hot springs here."

Naruto grinned. Yeah, that sounded like him alright.

"Well, let's not disappoint them," Naruto said, "Baa-chan'll probably kill us for not getting in because we couldn't find the enemy."

"It'd be extra training for the rest of our lives," Sasuke groaned.

"Then let's move," Sakura said, "It's already tough enough without more!"

"No extra training!" the other two yelled, raising their fists in the air.

They landed in a small clearing and looked around. This looked like as good a place as any to set things up. They would set some traps and wait there for about four hours, if no one showed up, they would keep moving. Naruto had every intention of going all night if they had to.

Three days wasn't that long.

Sasuke, who was good with wires, set up some hard to see, but very good, traps, Sakura set up a small genjutsu over some pits that she had punched and some exploding tags, and Naruto allowed himself to 'go to the bathroom' and see if anyone would be stupid enough to fall for it.

Naruto was disappointed when no one turned up, he had been hoping that someone would have been following them, but apparently, not everything always went as planned or hoped. When he had stood around feeling stupid for about three minutes, he came back, walking the very thin road that they had set up to a hollow tree that they were using to look like they were hiding out.

"Alright," Sakura said gleefully, "let's see if anyone takes the bait. Oh, by the way, Naruto, I never asked, what was up with Danzou's pet?"

Naruto had only briefly explained what had happened. Most of them had seemed more amused than anything else, but Kimimaro, Hinata and Haku had remained silent.

"I guess he just didn't like the way I was looking at him," Naruto shrugged, "He said that he would find me in the Exams, so maybe we'll fight him and see how good he is."

"I think...it might be a good idea to wait for that," Sakura said thoughtfully.

"This is a rarity," Sasuke remarked, "Usually you're one of the first to jump in while yelling 'sharreno' or something like that."

"Shannaro," Sakura said absently, "but really, I think that we should be careful around him, and Kimimaro agrees, I talked to him."

"When?" Naruto asked.

"While you and Sasuke were getting the scroll, it wasn't much of a conversation," Sakura admitted, "But there's something wrong with this guy. Danzou doesn't take an interest in losers, and I don't remember him."

"Neither do I," Sasuke admitted, and Naruto nodded.

"That's bad," Sakura said, "that means that he was brought in by Danzou later or he's ROOT, and by what Sai's said, those kids trained under him are no pushovers. He's got to be something special."

"So what do you suggest?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Watch him and hope not to get matched up against him before we get a chance to see what he can do," she said, looking thoughtful.

"Well, we won't have too much of a choice if he attacks now will we?" Naruto asked, "Speaking of attacks...I can feel someone coming."

"Me too," Sasuke whispered.

All three of them were silent as they listened. There was no sound other than the birds and insects, which were so loud that Naruto prayed that he wouldn't ever see them. They were apparently good, since they hadn't disturbed anyone, but Naruto could feel the chakra signatures of a team coming their way.

Naruto almost didn't hear the senbon that was being thrown for his head, but he moved his head in time to dodge it. At first he was more interested in the thrower than the senbon, but when he saw something dangling off of it, he turned to see just what it was. Two small bells were tied to the edge.

Bells?

By this time, the three attackers had come through the underbrush. It was a standard Genin team with two boys and one girl. One of the boys was completely covered in bandages, allowing only one eye to be seen. Naruto immediately wanted to kick himself for not thinking of something like that to cover his whiskers. The other boy had on a partial face protector attached to his hitei-ite. His brown hair was very spiky, but the thing about him that Naruto noticed the most was the character on his shirt. Shi. The girl had very long black hair that was tied up at the back with a bow in a style that looked like Neji's, she was wearing a scarf and from the looks of it, she was the one who had thrown the kunai.

They were all Sound nins.

Naruto didn't know too much about Oto. It had never been a place that Jiraiya had seemed interested enough in to tell him about. He knew that it was a new region, and that it was very violent. The ninja there weren't to be underestimated, but Jiraiya had refused to tell him who the leader of it was. Naruto hated it when Jiraiya did that. Blast it, he was the leader of a team, he really did not need to be protected.

Maybe he should form his own information network. Just to annoy Jiraiya and laugh in his face when he found something that the old pervert didn't know.

"Well, well, well," the boy with the kanji said smirking, "What have we here?"

"A group of weaklings taking a break," the girl grinned. "Too bad it could be their last. We don't have orders to kill you three, just get into the finals, but you know, if you're not careful...we just might...have an accident."

Sasuke twitched a certain figure in response.

Immediately, the trap that he had set reacted.

A log swung down from behind the team in order to make them jump either forwards or to the side to avoid it. This group was better than the ones who would jump forwards into a pit, but they jumped almost right into Sakura's exploding tags. There was a deafening explosion and for a moment, Naruto thought that they had gotten them, then a wave of...something...came towards them. They dodged, but even then, Naruto felt his ears, which were pretty sensitive due to the Kyuubi, ringing.

"Nice try," the bandaged boy said, "It appears that you wanted to draw someone in to get their scroll. Sadly, not all Genin in this Exam will fall for that kind of trap, no matter how well placed and executed."

Naruto noticed that the boy wasn't really taunting them, he was simply stating facts. Well, this was a nice change from the mudslinging that was usually going on, but it put him on edge. The ones who didn't trash talk were the ones who really needed to be watched.

"Yo, Dosu, whaddya want to do with them?" the brown haired boy asked, "I think we should kill them."

"I want to fight the girl," the girl said calmly, "I want to see if she's a kunoichi or a beauty queen."

The boy was looking at them carefully; his eye seemed to be weighing the consequences of killing them with the benefits.

"We will fight until one surrenders," Dosu ordered. The other boy didn't look that happy about it, but it seemed that Dosu was the leader, and the other two respected him as such.

In an instant everyone started to move.

Naruto was faced with Dosu, who didn't seem to have any weapons other than a metal thing on his right arm that Naruto didn't know the purpose of. Deciding to test the water first, Naruto placed his hands in the right seal.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled, creating ten clones and hiding in the tree above to see the results.

One of the clones threw a kunai at the ninja, who shielded himself with the metal arm. The clang of metal on metal generated a sound that made the bunshin disappear in a puff of smoke. The other nine spread out, five throwing kunai and four attacking from four angles. Dosu touched his arm, and Naruto could practically see the sound wave that forced the bunshin to explode.

"That's clever to see what I can do before attacking yourself, and since I respect you for that and am fully confident in my victory, I'll tell you what this does. My Melody Arm creates sound waves that attack the inner ear. Your Bunshin didn't seem to like it very much did they?"

Naruto looked around. Sasuke was busily avoiding a sonic blast from the shi guy, who thankfully didn't have the ability that Dosu had to attacking in multiple places at once. Sasuke had used housenka, but the guy was doing a pretty good job of dodging. Sakura wasn't doing as well. She was trying to get the girl to fight close range, and was punching the ground, but she had some senbon sticking out of her shoulder, and it looked like she was having trouble moving the arm. The most likely reason she could move it at all probably had to do with training with Haku.

Naruto only barely noticed when the sound wave went past the tree. He dodged, but, thanks to Kyuubi, he was able to hear it. Naruto found himself on the ground, his head feeling like it would explode. Sakura was screaming, Sasuke was yelling something, but none of it made sense to Naruto all he understood was pain. He would have done anything to make it stop.

Something started laughing in Naruto's mind.

He saw red.

* * *

"Here we go!" Hinata called out, "Everyone land in the clearing that's coming up. I'm breaking the genjutsu!"

"Yes ma'am," Sai said.

Gaara nodded.

"Kai!" Hinata called out, the Tenshi Byakugan glowing even through the genjutsu over her eyes. The whole forest shifted again.

They landed carefully, Hinata in a fighting stance and Sai with a short sword. Gaara was weaponless as usual, but he looked as if he was ready to attack if necessary. Three men jumped out of the trees after them and landed a little in front of them. He was carrying, of all things, an umbrella with him. Hinata was completely confused by that. It hadn't rained in a week and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Why did he need an umbrella if there was going to be no rain?

"Man, you kids were hard to catch up with. At least you were clever enough to break the genjutsu," one with a scar over one eye and the umbrella, probably the leader said, "You'd better entertain us for time we've wasted."

Hinata looked over them carefully. They were Rain nin, maybe that explained the umbrella, and they didn't seem to have any heavy weaponry with them, actually, looking at them with the Tenshi Byakugan, Hinata could see that they only had senbon with them along with the leader's umbrella.

Lots of senbon.

This would be much like fighting with Haku then, only without the problem of his kekkei genkai.

Sai stepped up and took out his scroll. He wasn't smiling at all, and his eyes had become very focused. Hinata and Gaara stood back. This formation seemed to worry the other team since the other two were looking at their leader as if questioning if this was a good idea after all.

"You've made a mistake to attack us head on like this," Sai told them, "But a sneak attack wouldn't have done much better. I will take your scroll from you."

"And I'll take your life!" the leader said angrily.

"Shigure!" one of them cried in a cautioning tone as the leader began to make a seal formation.

"I don't care just how good you are," Shigure said, "but there's no way you're going to be dodging this! Joro Senbon!"

With a single fluid motion, Shigure threw the umbrella into the air. Sai braced himself to jump back. The umbrella began to spin rapidly, but at first nothing happened. Hinata was getting ready to write off the jutsu as a diversionary tactic of some kind, when she started to see the senbon shooting out from it. They were not really aimed at Sai in particular, but rather the entire area that Sai was in. There was no way that he was going to be able to dodge.

"Hideaki!" Hinata shouted in horror.

"Sumi Tate no Justu!" Sai said scribbling something quickly on his scroll.

A black ball seemed to grow out of the scroll around him. The senbon hit almost instantaneously, and when they did, the ink bubble burst. The senbon were scattered around at Sai's feet, but Sai was all but unharmed. Without waiting to see the reactions of his attackers, Sai began to draw very rapidly on his scroll.

"Choju Giga," Sai said, as a very large creature with crab claws, a scorpion's tail a wolf's head and ten legs appeared, snarling and snapping.

Spending time with Jiraiya as a teacher had made Sai become even more creative with his drawings than Hinata had thought he could be. Some of his creatures looked like a mess, but others just looked dangerous and intimidating.

"What is that?!" one of the team members asked in horror, backing up a few steps.

Gaara calmly walked forward; sand swirling around him, "Surrender your scroll," he said simply, allowing the sand to snake around their ankles, "If you don't, you will die here."

Shigure looked at Sai's crablike thing nervously and then looked over at Gaara. Hinata could tell that he was weighing out the possibilities. If they kept on attacking they were facing a monster and there was something very sinister about that sand. If they gave up their scrolls, they had a chance to live and maybe find another two scrolls.

The choice wasn't too hard to make.

Glaring at them, Shigure placed his scroll on the ground in front of him and backed away, still facing them with his team. After one final stare down, the three ninja jumped backwards into the trees and vanished from sight.

Sai recalled his monster into his scroll and kept it there.

"I really like this one," he said to Gaara, "I think I'll save it for another time. The size of it is really interesting. If only I could get them to develop special attacks. I'd love to have a drawing that did its own jutsu!"

Gaara smirked a little bit and looked over at the scroll.

"That man left his umbrella," he said, picking it up and looking at it, "Do you think we should leave it?"

"Let's give it to Haku," Sai suggested, "He might really like it. Senbon are his specialty."

Hinata nodded, "Besides, it will confuse any attackers as to why you're walking around in a clear blue sky with an umbrella."

"They might leave us alone as we make for the center," Sai nodded, picking up the Heaven scroll.

It looked like their first attempt was a success. Hinata's worry had been misplaced as usual.

"I hope that the others are having as easy a time of it as we are," Hinata said looking up at the sky.

Especially Naruto.

* * *

To Naruto, it was as if something had suddenly charged him with electricity. Every single one of his senses was at least ten times sharper than it had been other than one, and that one had dulled almost completely; The ability to feel pain. Weariness was gone. It had been replaced by what felt like unlimited energy and unlimited anger. The ringing in his ears was gone, and there was one thought on Naruto's mind.

Dosu was going to die.

Naruto didn't notice the red Chakra swirling around him. He didn't notice the fact that his normally blue eyes had turned a glowing red with a fox-like pupil. Naruto didn't even notice that his hands were more or less claws that would be better at tearing than at punching.

"What's happening?" the Sound girl said, backing up a few paces, "What's that disgusting Chakra I can feel?"

"It's...sick..." the other boy said, "It's not really a part of him...it's just...sick feeling."

Neither of them were paying any more attention to the battle.

Sasuke looked over at Sakura, who was looking horrified.

"So...that's it," she said after a moment, "That's what its Chakra felt like...no wonder...they said it caused nightmares even before it had reached them."

"Kyuubi," was all that Sasuke said, watching Naruto.

So this was what the Chakra of the most powerful of all the Bijuu, the creature who had turned Konoha into a near rubbish heap, the monster that his mother had always told him would eat him if he was a bad kid. He had never really taken it seriously when Naruto had told them about it. As someone who didn't have any close family that had been killed, the attack had been somehow removed from him.

Then there was a killing intent. Sasuke had faced it before with Zabuza, but this was different. It lay as heavy as the air around them and suffocated them. There was anger, but it wasn't angry in the same way that it had been with Zabuza. It was not a threat Zabuza's was. It was a promise of complete and utter destruction.

For a brief moment, Sasuke understood the fear that the villagers had had for Naruto when he was young. If just feeling its Chakra, and probably a small amount of it, was this bad...what had the beast been liked in person? It must have truly been a horror.

Dosu was backing up as well. He didn't know what this boy was doing, but the Chakra that he was feeling was not only terrifying, it was...wrong.

There was just something completely unnatural about it, like it was something that should have never existed.

Naruto attacked, rushing forwards, headlong into Dosu. It wasn't a move that Naruto did much, but Naruto wasn't really thinking straight. He barely even noticed the sound wave that Dosu sent at him, and only vaguely felt the pain from it.

Dosu braced himself for the punch that he knew was going to come, but was sent flying. He landed on his feet, but barely had time to even raise his hands before Naruto was on him again, punching, scratching, kicking, and, once, biting. Jutsu had completely gone from his head.

Dosu finally managed to jump away. He was bleeding very badly, and his breathing was ragged and forced.

"Wait," he said, "We will withdraw."

He took out the scroll of earth from under his shirt and placed it on the ground in front of him.

Naruto was only barely aware of that, but Sasuke had jumped on him and was holding his arms back.

"Let me go!" Naruto yelled, "I'm going to kill him!"

"Naruto!" Sakura said, "They surrendered. It's over!"

"I'm going to kill him!" Naruto screamed.

Sasuke punched Naruto on the cheek.

"Listen to yourself!" he said angrily, "Are you that weak that when you get a little booboo you're going to lose your mind and go into a homicidal rage?! I expected more! You're acting just like the monster that they all thought you were!"

That woke Naruto up along with the punch.

The feeling receded, and the pain from the sound returned, worse this time. Naruto's legs gave out from under him and his whole body felt like it had been running for hours. He was shuddering a little bit and for the second time in his life, he was truly afraid of the Kyuubi.

Naruto looked up for the Sound team, but they were already gone.

"That was one of the most horrifying things I've seen," Sakura admitted, "Tsunade trained me to face all kinds of things, but...that...I've never felt anything like that before...that rage."

What was worse was that just for a second...Naruto had liked it.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Sound team was retreating at a very fast pace. Zaku and Kin looked at their leader.

"I didn't know that there was a berserker on that team or I wouldn't have suggested going after them. Sorry, Dosu," Zaku said, looking annoyed that he had to say it.

"They looked a lot weaker than they were," Kin agreed, "I originally thought that she was just another beauty queen with that hair, but it looks like she just had some bad genetic luck."

Both were a little subdued about their defeat. While they had been doing well enough against their opponents, all of them had the feeling that they had been pulling their punches. Then when the blonde kid had gone berserk, they all wondered what was with the other team.

"Hey," Zaku said after a moment, "What are we gonna report to Orochimaru-sama? He's not going to be happy that you got trashed by some random guy."

All of them were slightly in fear of their leader. While he seemed like an ideal leader sometimes, other times he just seemed dangerous. He was unpredictable. Sometimes, if a mission was failed, he would seem understanding, but at others he would kill the unfortunate person.

"We're not going to mention this," Dosu said thoughtfully, "We're under orders to participate in this Exam and to look like we're serious about this whole stupid thing and to see the power of the Konoha Genin. That group was from Kusa, so their secrets can stay secret."

"Besides," Kin said, "What Orochimaru-sama doesn't know...can't anger him."

"And we're going to survive," Zaku nodded, "All three of us."

Dosu nodded, but his thoughts were elsewhere: on the words that the black haired boy had said when his teammate went berserk.

_Kyuubi_

But...that was impossible...wasn't it?

* * *

Kimimaro, Neji, and Haku had lit a fire for themselves and settled down for a rest and a meal. They couldn't keep going all day, and things were looking like they were going to take some time. Actually, they looked like they were going to take a lot of time.

It was already dark out, and most teams would be doing the same thing as them. Actually they were being pretty obvious, camping by a river, lighting a fire, and cooking some freshly caught fish that would smell very strong. They were trying to look as inexperienced as possible in order to get someone to attempt to attack them.

As of yet, no one had taken the bait.

Actually, according to Neji, they had had the misfortune of missing every single team that went anywhere near them. It was really getting annoying. They only had two days left. The others might even have had their scrolls by this time.

And there was that scene they had found.

Kimimaro wasn't the apprentice of either of the two Sannin who were training them, so he had no way of instantly communicating with much of anyone. They were all waiting for one of Naruto's summons. While Sakura could summon slugs, she didn't do it very often. They weren't that good of messengers anyway. Naruto's toads were really multipurpose, but Sakura's slugs really were best for medical reasons. They could do almost anything from delivering mail to fighting. Also, they were able to find the people they were summoned to speak to fairly fast.

At any rate, there was nothing they could do but wait.

There was a sudden poof and Gamakichi appeared, grinning at them all. He raised one of his front feet in greeting.

"Yo," he said, "Naruto sent me over here to see how you were doing. They and Team Shugo already have their scrolls."

Neji looked annoyed. He hated being last in anything, but really, it had been his idea to wait and see if prey would come to them.

"We haven't gotten ours yet," Kimimaro admitted, this was annoying, "But we've found something more important. We stumbled on the remains of a Genin team this afternoon. They had completely been ripped to shreds, literally. From what we had seen, it looked like it was some kind of animal, other than the fact that there was no scroll at the site. We will be facing at least one person who is capable both physically and mentally of ripping an opponent apart. They may be Chuunin or even Jounin level, because we only had the aftermath to deal with, I can't tell for certain."

Gamakichi looked faintly disgusted.

"Well, that's definitely a good message to pass to the others," he said, looking like he didn't want to comment on the actual scene. Kimimaro was reminded that although the toad spoke like he was their age or possibly a little older, in reality; Gamakichi was probably only the equivalent of a nine-year-old or so.

"Tell Naruto that we're going to need to call a meeting when we get the chance to decide what to do with this. We don't know whose side this person is on or what their presence is going to mean. We have to have some kind of plan for dealing with them when we reach the Finals of the Exam, which they will definitely be a part of."

"I'll tell him, but he'll tell you not to worry," Gamakichi said, "You know Naruto better than me. By the way...you got something for me, right?"

Kimimaro took out a small bag of candied nuts and handed it to the small frog. They all made sure to have some when they were separate. After all, the reason that Gamakichi was being such a helpful little messenger was because of the food. Otherwise they would have had to find another way to do it.

"Alright, see you later," Gamakichi said.

"Ja ne," Neji grumbled. Was he still sore about being the only one without a scroll?

"We'll see you soon, Gamakichi-kun," Haku smiled.

He used to refer to him as Gamakichi-chan, but the frog had thrown a fit every single time that it was used, so finally Haku had given in when speaking to him.

With a loud poof, the toad vanished.

"So, what now?" Neji asked.

"We rest, and take turns on watch," Kimimaro shrugged, "We could go all night, but I'd rather not unless we absolutely have to."

"If we don't get a scroll because of this, I'm going to kill you," Neji told him.

"We'll get a scroll. Besides, it's pitch black in here, and your Byakugan doesn't allow you to see in the dark now does it?" Kimimaro asked, raising an eyebrow. He had been sure to know everything that he could find out about everyone's kekkei genkai and abilities. The Bijuu were hard since their abilities were closely guarded secrets, but thanks to the scrolls that the original six had brought out, Kimimaro knew more about the Sharingan and Byakugan than most people.

The look on Neji's face told him that Neji also knew that he was telling the truth.

"Well, it's not a bad thing, Neji," Haku told him, "If you think about it, all the weaker teams will be the first to be eliminated, so there's a good chance that we will encounter one of the strong ones eventually. There are even teams who just pick off the weaker ones for kicks, so there's a chance that we might get to fight someone who's stronger than the people that Team Dattebayo or Team Shugo fought."

Kimimaro never ceased to be amazed by Haku. The fact that he could say something like that while sounding like a pleasant, polite person was a feat in and of itself. Sometimes he was sure that if Haku really wanted to, he could probably take over the world. Then again, there would be no way he would want to. That would mean leaving Hakumei, and none of them wanted that.

Even this mission, which had no personal meaning to Kimimaro, was fine. They wanted revenge and Kimimaro was happy to help. He supposed that at some level he hadn't changed too much from the scared nine-year-old who wanted nothing else but to be needed. He knew that he wouldn't be replaced or anything stupid like that, but still; he wanted to do anything he could for them. After all, Hakumei had giving him a reason to live, and Kimimaro would do anything for any of them.

* * *

Jiraiya hadn't set foot in his Konoha residence for an extremely long time. Actually, it had been roughly ten years now. He had left when Minato had died, and he had never returned overnight during those first five years.

Tsunade wasn't the only one with unwanted memories.

The place was small and decorated in a very different style than his hermitage. It was more Spartan, smaller, and one corner of the room had a small shrine set on it. The shrine was made up of pictures, mostly of three people: A pretty blonde girl with brown eyes, a boy with rather shaggy looking white hair, and another boy with long dark hair, pale skin, and amber snakelike eyes. Set in a place of honor was the Genin picture: Tsunade and Jiraiya stood making faces at the camera while Orochimaru looked at the two with a nervous smile and Sarutobi-sensei stood a distance away looking like he wasn't sure whether all his bad karma had come back to bite him or not.

Jiraiya didn't know why he still kept those pictures around. They were rather depressing, and they brought to mind all kinds of things that he didn't really want to remember, such as the day that they had actually become a Genin team.

He had not been all that thrilled about being on a team with Tsunade, who he saw as an overly temperamental girl who wasn't all that pretty or developed, or Orochimaru, who everyone saw as both a genius and a 'freaky snake-kid.' As he recalled when the arrangement had been told, Jiraiya had slammed his hands on the table and yelled out something like.

"What?! How can you place me, the Great Jiraiya, with these two boring people?"

The teacher, Satoshi-sensei, who had hated him and was probably thrilled to have him out of the classroom, had shrugged.

"As the places are decided by your grades, you got placed in the arrangement where you would learn the most. Orochimaru is this top of this year's class and you're this year's dead-last in everything. Tsunade seconds Orochimaru. You should be happy to be with such outstanding students."

"I would ask why you want to balance the teams out, but I probably wouldn't like the answer," Tsunade muttered, glaring at both of her teammates.

Orochimaru didn't say anything; he just looked up at the ceiling.

They hadn't had to wait all that long, they had been collected by a bearded ninja who was from a fairly prominent clan. He had lead them up to the roof of the Academy, it had only been built a few years ago then, and had sat across from them, facing them with a thoughtful look.

"Well, I'm going to ask you to introduce yourselves. Talk about your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, that kind of thing," their new instructor had said with a smile. "I'll start first, my name is Sarutobi Hiruzen. I like smoking, even though my wife hates it, Konoha, and I hope to like all of you. I dislike traitors, students who don't take their work seriously, and when my wife steals my pipe. My dream is reach the level of the people who taught me, but I don't think my hobbies are anything you'll care about. Next, ladies first."

Tsunade glared around at the other two, particularly Jiraiya, and started, "My name is Senju Tsunade. I like learning interesting jutsu, games (particularly ones where you bet), and my little brother. I hate perverts, stupid people, and people...who think they know everything," Tsunade trailed off a little at that point but kept going, "My dream is to become the most powerful kunoichi in the world and win the lottery!"

"Is that really a girl?" Jiraiya hissed to Orochimaru.

"You shouldn't say things like that, boke," Orochimaru hissed back.

"You are you calling boke, hebi-kun?"

"Is that the best insult you can come up with?" Orochimaru sneered, "At least you could attempt something slightly original, but that _would_ require an actual thought to enter your mind or maybe the medic to forcibly insert a mind in your head."

Before Jiraiya could attack, Sarutobi, who didn't seem to have heard the conversation, called him to start.

"Alright," he said, looking over at Tsunade, "It's nice to meet you. My name's Yukimura Jiraiya, you can send me a love-letter later."

Tsunade punched him. Hard.

"Resistance is futile!" Jiraiya crowed, "I will tame you, and you will submit to me!"

"How come everything you say sounds dirty!?"

Everything fell into complete chaos after that.

Jiraiya looked at the picture now; the voices from that afternoon were so far away. He slowly pushed the picture face down and started to take down the others, leaving none. The last thing that Jiraiya needed now was those memories. He suspected Tsunade was doing a similar thing in her house right now. He would put up his Icha Icha reviews and clean out that desk of all the old files.

Besides, he was happy now, Jiraiya thought. He had Tsunade all to himself, and that was a blessing. He didn't have to deal with Orochimaru's rather cutting criticism of him. Now that Orochimaru was gone forever, everything was better.

But why was it, that no matter how much timed passed, he didn't seem to stop feeling angry. He had put it to rest. Only a fool would keep chasing after old memories that were dead, and while Jiraiya sometimes acted the part, he was no fool. He had seen a fair share of betrayal in his life; his family, his best friend, and his student were prime examples. No, while Jiraiya was sometimes a sap and a romantic, he knew a lost cause when one was staring him in the face.

It was time to take down those pictures and face the facts. He had too much to worry about, and there were enough things that Jiraiya could alter without having to think about lost causes that didn't matter anymore.

He took down the last picture, an older version of himself and Orochimaru that Tsunade had taken at their promotion party. Jiraiya had collapsed in a puddle of spit and Orochimaru, who didn't drink because he would just pass out, was carrying him over shoulder and looking with annoyance at the camera. The writing underneath it said _Beautiful Friendship_.

Slowly Jiraiya burned it.

* * *

**Omake:** Further introductions

"Alright, alright, settle down," Sarutobi finally managed to make himself heard, "Alright Jiraiya-kun we know your name what do you like?"

Jiraiya started to giggle, "I'm not sure I should say..."

Sarutobi's eye twitched, "Alright, what don't you like."

"Ugly women who punch me, but I'll forgive you because you're kinda cute in an ironing board kinda way," Jiraiya told Tsunade.

She punched him again.

"And your dream and hobbies?" Sarutobi asked.

Jiraiya giggled again.

"Alright, next!" Sarutobi said to the very cranky looking Orochimaru.

"My name is Orochimaru. My last name is none of your concern, neither are my likes, dislikes, dream, or hobbies. I am here because I have to be here, not because I want to make friends."

"Aw, come on!" Jiraiya said angrily, "Don't be so coy!"

Orochimaru stared at Jiraiya for a good long time.

"Tsunade-hime is right," he said after a while, "Every time you talk, it sounds dirty..."

* * *

_Hello everyone, I'm sorry for the long wait, but I've been really busy with tests and the fact that as of last Thursday, I am the proud auntie of a nine pound baby girl. I've been going to the hospital a lot and helping my sister. _

_O_o I'm still kind of in shock. _

_I'm probably going to end up corrupting the kid._

_At any rate, thanks for reading, and I hoped you liked it!_

_Notes:_

_Kimimaro: Wow, when I write from his point of view, he's a surprisingly serious character. I've tried to show that although his circumstances are vastly different and he does have a sick sense of humor, he still has the basis of the person as in the manga. _

_The nasty bloody mess: Can you guess who did it? My one hint: It sure wasn't Yumi._

_Sound: A lot of people seem to underestimate its power. There are frequencies that can actually cause all the cells in someone's body to rupture, causing instant death. Also, it's almost impossible to block, unless you happen to be able to disrupt the waves. Since Naruto was watching the others to see how well they were doing, he didn't notice Dosu doing a general sweep with his arm. Sorry if I made him seem weak. He just underestimated it. He won't do that again. Also, Naruto's really limiting himself. You'll see some of his full power in the Preliminaries. Sorry it's taking so long._

_Dosu: I really didn't see too much of him, but he strikes me as a more formal, polite type. I don't remember him trash-talking too much either, but that could just be me. It's been a while since I've seen the Chuunin Exam arc._

_Kyuubified Naruto: Looking at the manga and anime where the Kyuubi got control, Naruto doesn't seem to notice that he's in pain until much later. That's probably because the Kyuubi doesn't really want him to know that what he's doing is killing him. Also, Naruto seems to be able to take almost anything in that form and as long as it doesn't cripple him, Naruto's not going to go down. I think that even at the stage that I'm describing (the stage where he went wild on the bridge in the manga) I think that the same thing was happening. Also, I thought that afterwards, while he doesn't suffer from the damage of the other forms, he's exhausted._

_No Orochimaru: No, we haven't seen him running around have we? The reason will be shown later, but just to tell you, his plans are...slightly different due to a few things that happened to him in my story. Don't worry, you'll get it all explained to you later. At the moment it's not too important, just remember, the plans are slightly different, and don't expect everything to go as it did in the manga. Well, that is a little obvious now isn't it? After all, we have a curse seal-less Sasuke running around._

_Jiraiya: Another surprisingly serious character when I write him. I always kind of feel that Orochimaru's defection probably hurt him more than anyone really knows, and I never really feel that that emotion is explored very much. If you think about it, the guy probably deep down feels like a total failure. His best friend turned into a sadistic pedophile, his student turned into a vigilante with a god-complex, and the girl he loved turned into a broken hearted old woman. I'd say that he probably paid so much attention to Naruto's determination to bring Sasuke back as a kind of hope to rewrite his own life story into something decent. But that's just me._

_Translations:_

_Shi-Death_

_Joro Senbon-Senbon Shower: __This Jutsu requires a special umbrella/parasol. After throwing the parasol in the air, it will release a hailing "shower" of senbon. Any quick enemy will be able to deflect/block the senbon since they do not travel at particularly high speeds. However, this cannot be dodged by moving away since the needles cover a wide area. _

_Sumi Tate no Justu-Ink Shield Technique (Original Jutsu): A bubble of ink surrounds the user. Takes up very little Chakra, but it pops after only a single strong hit or a few weak ones._

_Chōjū Giga-Super Beasts Imitation Picture: By drawing pictures on a scroll, the user can create life-size beings under his/her control. They can be used as excellent distractions and also be used to hide and deliver messages. _

_Ja ne-See you_

_Boke-touched in the head, idiot, fool. It also means a Japanese quince. _

_Hebi-kun: Mr. Snake or Snake-boy, depending on the translation._

_Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Also, I've got a forum up if you have questions and stuff, so I can answer it a little faster. Eventually I'm going to have some other things like stats and just, so check it out!  
_

_Review!_


	19. Part 2: Acting

_Author's Corner: I've noticed that there was some trouble with reviews last chapter. I guess deleting that one note caused some problems. Seriously, it's a little annoying, but I guess there's nothing I can do but keep writing. _

_Fanfiction can be a real pain sometimes can't it?_

_It's funny, in this story I find myself creating main characters out of characters that I don't even like all that much. For instance, I really have no feelings whatsoever for the manga version of Kimimaro. I consider him powerful, but not all that interesting. I actually placed him in the group originally as a sort of place holder. I needed someone who would work as the ninth member of Hakumei, and there weren't any other characters that I really thought would leave. Shikamaru wouldn't have left Konoha to begin with, Ino or Chouji woudn't have been out, and there weren't any minor characters that were worth the effort of making them important . So Kimimaro got that place...I was amazed by how well he seemed to fit in._

_Same thing goes with Zabuza. I was going to kill him in my original draft, but I didn't, and actually, he's starting to sort of grow on me...I guess he appeals to my more sadistic side. _

_This is just to say that don't be surprised if I use a character that I don't like in a way that makes that character look good. I'm more interested in this story, not my personal feelings for some characters._

_By the way, after watching the recent anime, am I the only one who feels slightly sorry for Shino?_

_Also, responding to an anonymous review: There isn't any fanart for Hakumei other than the one picture of Hinata that I created. Maybe that will change during the summer as I get more of a chance to draw, or, if you're lucky, this story will inspire someone to draw something. But don't count on it. _

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns no part of Naruto or anything connected with it. She has no interest in being sued with all the publicity and camera's and stupid questions._

_Thanks to Ibby-kun (MegaB) for betaing for me as always._

_The List: _

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.**__**  
**_

_**-Samuel Butler **_

* * *

Naruto was not in the best of spirits when Gamakichi returned. He was thinking about what had happened earlier. Had he not been held back, Naruto would have killed that Sound guy. What was worse was the sick feeling that somewhere he would have gotten a savage pleasure out of it. The thought of it made his stomach hurt.

Every time he closed his eyes, Naruto could see the eyes that he had seen when he was younger looking out at him, and he could feel its frustration. It had wanted to kill that guy. It hadn't been particularly discriminate. If Sasuke had been there, Naruto might have attacked him too. It was possible that after a while, he would get into such a rage that it wouldn't matter to him who he was fighting as long as someone suffered.

He stared into the fire that Sasuke had made, wondering if maybe they would be better off if he left them. If he could snap like that then...

"If you do very much more brooding, I'm going to punch you again," Sasuke's voice cut in, "And this time, I'm going to mean it."

Naruto, who was Sasuke's usual sparring partner, knew very well what that meant.

"Or, if Sasuke doesn't beat that out of you," Sakura smirked, "I could use Tsunade's method for when Sasuke started to get broody about his family."

Naruto also knew what that meant, and he had not interest whatsoever in being force-fed every sweet thing that Sakura could find (in this forest, that might kill Naruto by itself) and then hung up from a branch in his underwear for all the world to see.

"Guys," Naruto mumbled, "You saw it didn't you?"

"Yeah," Sasuke muttered, "You'd think that Kyuubi would do more damage wouldn't you? Gaara's always got his sand, and I was expecting a little more of a reaction when you finally lost it. Truthfully, it's a surprise that you didn't kill that bandaged guy in the first move."

"What?!" Naruto was shocked.

Sakura smiled a little nervously.

"Well, Naruto, ever since you told us about Kyuubi, Sasuke and I have been researching about it and its abilities. Hinata had guessed that your father had tried to make the seal as beneficial to you as he could, but there was only so much that he could do. We thought that it might be a good idea to know what the Kyuubi could do so that we knew what to expect if you even tapped into its power."

Naruto had never really researched the powers of his...tenant. He really didn't want to acknowledge that the thing was even there, but now he wished that he had thought about something other than his own issues with being a Jinchuuriki.

"What does it do?" Naruto had to ask.

"According to most sources?" Sasuke asked, "Anything it feels like. It's the most powerful of all of them, and it's probably the most intelligent as well. It really can plot, not like Sandy Wandy, who just seems to scream about killing people. Kyuubi plots things out in advance. That's probably why it didn't force more of its Chakra into you. It wanted to get you used to the feeling so that it could push more and more into you before you really noticed the difference."

"And that would do what? Relieve stress?" Naruto asked, "I don't see what Fuzzy Wuzzy's getting out of that."

"Neither do I, but I think Jiraiya-baka has a pretty good idea," Sakura said thoughtfully.

"Ero-sennin is going to die if he's keeping something that important from me," Naruto growled, "I'm not a little kid anymore, and it's kind of important to me since it really does concern me a whole lot more than it does him."

"Well, you can use that one jutsu on him later then," Sasuke said rolling his eyes, "You know, the one that Sakura almost killed you for when she saw it."

Sakura glared at Naruto.

Before the conversation could continue much further there was a popping sound and Gamakichi appeared, looking a little worried and holding a bag of candies that Kimimaro had probably given to him.

"You look upset," Sakura remarked, "Is there anything wrong?"

She looked like she was ready to get up and run over to where ever the toad told her to go. Then again, she was Hakumei's head medic, and while Haku and Hinata were both good, Sakura really was Tsunade's apprentice, and Naruto had once overheard Jiraiya remarking that she probably could surpass Tsunade one day.

"Well, Kimimaro has a message for ya, and...um...it's not good," Gamakichi mumbled, "There's a freaky psycho dude running around who tears people's legs up and eats them or something."

There was silence.

"Run that by me again," Sasuke said, blinking a little.

"There's a guy or something running around who literally tore another team apart. Kimimaro, Neji, and Haku found the remains. Kimimaro says that you're going to need to call a meeting when you all meet up again 'cause the Chuunin Exams are looking a lot more dangerous than they should be. If you ask me, which you're not, I'd say there's something really weird going on in this little Exam, and you're not the only ones with another agenda."

"I see what you mean," Sakura said thoughtfully, "If there's someone who can do that, we don't know what else the people here can do."

"My dad always tells me to be suspicious about things like this," Gamakichi nodded.

"Your dad is the yakuza toad with the sake addiction, right?" Sasuke asked, "Isn't he the boss of the toads?"

"My dad's not a yakuza!" Gamakichi yelled.

"At any rate, we all agree that you've made a good point, thanks a lot for your help, and would you mind taking an answer to the others?" Naruto asked, trying to gloss over the thing, Gamakichi would argue for hours, as Naruto knew from personal experience.

The toad glared over at Sasuke, but seemed to decide that he was going to act like an adult and nodded, not even asking for sweets the way he usually did. He seemed to want to prove something to Sasuke. Gamakichi agreed to take the message that they were all ok, and they would meet the moment they could and discuss what to do with the information that Team Kekkei Genkai had found out.

"Well, I guess now all we have to do is head for the center and wait for the others," Naruto said, looking back into the fire.

Not only was there the Kyuubi to worry about, there was this unknown factor. The others didn't seem to be in much of a mood to talk either as they all sat, watching the flames. Was what Gamakichi had said true? At first everything had seemed so simple...but now...

"It looks like this Exam is going to be a whole lot more interesting than we thought," Sasuke said.

Sakura nodded, "and for once, I think that it's going to be really dangerous."

"Well, the 'freaky psycho dude' has a scroll, hopefully the right one, and we have some more traps ready. Sakura, you can take the first watch, Sasuke you take the next one, and I'll take the last one," Naruto said, "If anyone comes, we'll give them a real surprise. If worse comes to worse, we kill them. And if you're going to kill them, use whatever techniques that come to you. After all, dead men tell no tales, right?"

"Where did you hear that?" Sakura asked, "It's a little poetic for you."

"It was in the latest Princess Fuuin movie," Naruto said without thinking, "It was showing in the only theater in Wave. Me, Sai, and Kimimaro watched it while you and Haku were getting stuff, and Hinata, Gaara, and Neji were on guard in the base."

Both Sasuke and Sakura gave him a rather murderous look.

"What?"

* * *

Hinata bit her lip a little and played with her fingers as Gamakichi disappeared, returning to whereever it was the toad summons actually lived. The scene that he had described turned her stomach and made her nervous. As a ninja, Hinata had been taught not to worry about pain or death, but she still hated to see other people in pain or cause deaths that were extremely painful. One good thing about her family's style was that, when applied right to the heart, it killed almost instantly, and the person never experienced too much pain.

Gaara was looking worried as well, but he didn't seem as upset as Hinata was. Gaara had one of the highest tolerances to carnage of the group, second only to Sai, so that shouldn't have bothered him too much. If he was worried, he wasn't thinking about the carnage.

"Is something bothering you?" Hinata asked.

"Well...yes..." Gaara said at last, "At first, I didn't really want to tell you since I wasn't sure that I was right or that it wasn't a big deal, but...I felt the Kyuubi's Chakra."

"What?" Sai asked, looking up from the scroll that he was writing in.

Gaara repeated himself, "it wasn't very much of it. Well, I don't think that it was very much of it. My prisoner went into a fit once he sensed it, but I wasn't sure what it was at first. Naruto had never lost control before, so the Chakra was strange to me, but there's nothing else that it could be. It could only be a Bijuu and the chances that there is another one in this Exam are ridiculously low. It was already strange for Naruto and I to both be Jinchuuriki since we're the same age."

"So, Naruto lost control...why didn't he mention it..?" Hinata asked, already half guessing the answer.

"Because Naruto hates to make people worry about him," Sai said, "You knew him even before you left, and you remember how people used to treat him."

Hinata hadn't been allowed to wander around very much when she was young. She had already been kidnapped once. The last thing her father wanted was another incident like that. It was that kidnapping that she could never really talk too much about with the others. While they knew the basics, any lengthy discussion was too much for Neji. While Neji had forgiven her for being kidnapped in the first place, he would probably never quite forgive her father for using his father as a scapegoat. Neji would have been fine with living as an inferior member of the clan, but the fact that Hiashi had used his twin brother just to save his own life was too much for him. The longer the discussion lasted, the better a chance that Neji would leave and not return for the rest of the day.

After the kidnapping, Hinata hadn't been allowed to be anywhere without at least one fully-fledged ninja with her, but she had seen how the teachers at the Academy viewed Naruto. She had seen the deep-seated hatred that burned in them every time they looked at him. It wasn't really even directed at him. It was like when they looked at Naruto, they were looking at a picture of someone or something else that they hated. Naruto had never spoken of it much. He seldom spoke of his pain.

Once when they were sparring, Naruto dislocated his shoulder, but he refused to even show the pain. It was only when Jiraiya had noticed that he was holding himself strangely when he punched that they saw just how badly it was dislocated and he was wounded. Naruto hadn't even cried out when Tsunade had forced it back into alignment. For all that he acted fussy about some things, Naruto never liked to show weakness. Not really.

"He would think that since he wasn't hurt too bad, it wasn't worth mentioning," Hinata sighed.

"That sounds about right," Gaara agreed.

"I'm thinking of feeding him to one of my drawings," Sai said with the fake smile that showed he was probably dead serious about what he was saying.

"One day he's going to learn that there is no way that we will allow him to keep secrets like this," Hinata sighed, "We'll confront him about this when we see him next."

Stupid Naruto. Stupid heroic Naruto. Why did he think he had to be invincible? Didn't he think that people were worried about him?

Of course he did, and that was why he hated to show weakness, Hinata thought. Naruto doesn't want to worry anyone. While he had gotten better and more open, he would still sometimes refuse to tell people when he was upset or hurt.

One of these days, she promised herself, she was going to cure him of that for good.

* * *

"Would you like to know something?" Neji said the next morning as he sat by the river that they had found, "there's a huge difference between fishing and sitting at the side of a river with a stick in your hand, looking like an idiot."

"Well, Neji, you're doing a good job," Kimimaro muttered. He wasn't in that great of a mood since he had had almost no sleep that night. Maybe Gaara could live with insomnia, but he didn't like it all that much.

Neji glared over at him, but Kimimaro ignored him. He really wasn't in the mood.

It was early, very early. The sun had barely even risen yet, and they were already preparing to continue their work. It was going to be a quick breakfast of fish, if Neji managed to catch anything, and then they were going to be off and looking for a scroll to steal. From the sound of it, a lot of Genin had already been eliminated. This really was for all practical purposes; an all out war like Tsunade had described it.

Haku was finishing packing up the rest of the things, and Kimimaro was watching for any kind of ambush while they waited. Kimimaro actually thought that this would be an ideal time for an ambush to occur. Most people were more lax during this time of the morning.

There was a splashing sound that showed that Neji had caught a fish and a moment later Kimimaro jumped down to see. It wasn't too big, but it would have to do. Sitting in one place like this was starting to make him a little edgy. Neji definitely agreed since he didn't look like he was going to continue.

"This really isn't enough," Haku said, "Even if we are in some danger, it's probably better for us to have a full meal."

"We can get a full meal later," Neji grumbled, "besides, Sakura made some soldier pills for us."

Haku stared at him with huge eyes.

"You're an incredibly brave person, Neji." he said, "I'm sure that it's good for us, but Sakura's soldier pills are probably the most disgusting food I've ever eaten, and I have plenty of experience with disgusting foods."

Kimimaro looked at the bag that each of them had a little dubiously. He had had the misfortune of having her soldier pills before. While Sakura's cooking usually wasn't all that bad, she seemed to be unable to make homemade soldier pills without making the person who ate them want to throw up. Even Sasuke had run off to the bathroom when he had had them once.

"I'll eat anything if it will get us out of here, even Sakura's soldier pills.

Kimimaro would eat his in front of her just to please her if he had to, but he sure didn't want to do so when she wasn't there, and he didn't have to.

"If it's a choice between waiting for you to catch something else or eat that, I'll wait," Kimimaro said, "I heard Sakura talking about this being some kind of industrial strength kind."

Haku's face paled a little at the thought.

"Didn't anyone pack anything else?" Haku asked.

"I didn't think that we'd end up having to play survival games in the middle of a forest without time to prepare. Seriously, there's no mission like this," Neji grumbled.

He had a point, but there was always a chance that food would run out. Maybe this was for that kind of situation. That and this was a test of everything in one, not a mission simulation, although it did have similarities. They were looking for a scroll, which in other situations would be carrying vital information, and there were a large number of people aside from them looking for the same thing.

The similarities ended there.

"Well at any rate," Kimimaro sighed, "It's Sakura's soldier pills, waiting for the fish, or eating what we have and living with it."

"I'm all for the third choice," Neji mumbled.

"I vote the second," Haku said, crossing his arms.

"Second," Kimimaro said, after a moment of thought. He did want to get going, but not until he was ready to fight, "Two to one."

Neji grumbled something that would have probably led to him having his mouth washed out by Tsunade and took up the stick again.

Happy coincidence seemed to be on Neji's side, however.

There was a sound like a twig breaking somewhere and footsteps coming nearer.

Thoughts of breakfast were abandoned as Team Kekkei Genkai prepared for their long awaited battle for another scroll and a chance to exercise their powers.

* * *

"You know something," Naruto said after about an hour of jumping through trees.

"I know a lot of things," Sasuke said, "What thing are you talking about?"

"Having those two scrolls is kind of like having Pandora's Box," Naruto said as if Sasuke hadn't interrupted.

"Tell me about it," Sakura moaned, "All I'm thinking about right now is what's in them."

"Maybe...it's a summon scroll and if you open it, the summon will eat you," Sasuke said in a monotone voice.

"Maybe it's a copy of one of the Icha Icha books," Naruto said thoughtfully, "They would be able to tell who opened them pretty quick, either the scroll would have blood on it from a nosebleed, the person would have this horrified look on their face, or they would have a slap mark from where their female teammate read over their shoulder and thought that it was something they had brought along."

"Maybe it's just a blank piece of paper with a seal on it that shows if someone's been opening it or not..." Sakura looked over at the other two with a raised eyebrow.

"I guess we won't know," Naruto sighed, "It's going to be like Kakashi-san's mask."

"You wanted to take it off too?" Sasuke asked.

"I wonder if he's got...big lips..." Naruto said thoughtfully.

Sasuke almost ran into a tree at that mental image.

"Or maybe buck teeth..." Naruto continued.

Sakura and Sasuke both stopped, a shudder running up their spines.

"Or a small mouth..."

"SHUT UP, NARUTO!" Two voices rang out.

"Shut up yourselves," Naruto hissed, "We don't know who's listening!"

"Sorry," Sakura grumbled.

"Hn," Sasuke growled, "Then don't give us weird mental images."

It was strange how they were talking normally like the whole Kyuubi incident hadn't even happened. Naruto wasn't sure whether he was happy or if he felt guilty. After all, he had lost control. The one thing that he had always promised himself that he would never do. And then there was the savage joy that he had felt at causing that destruction. Was that his pleasure or Kyuubi's? Naruto had no wish to attempt to speak to the creature, but that question worried him. Had he really enjoyed it? Would he have enjoyed killing that guy? No, Naruto couldn't believe it. While he knew that he was a little weird sometimes, he knew the things he liked and disliked, and killing other people wasn't a like of his. The Chakra must have carried some of Kyuubi's personality and awareness with it. That was all. Naruto would have to talk to Jiraiya when he had a chance. That guy was a seal master, and Naruto might need to know some of his seals.

Naruto had learned quite a few, but right now he wasn't up to a real master's standards. He hadn't taken it that seriously, wanting to learn taijustu and ninjustu, not just seals. Well he had seen where he was wrong. Ero-sennin would probably be happy to do it, if only so that Naruto would have to proofread his books for him. No one else would do it.

The center of the forest wasn't too hard to get to, but the closer they got to it, the bigger chance of getting ambushed there was. After all, teams who had lost their scroll, or hadn't found another one would wait for a team with two to come by and try to steal the scroll from them. There were two incidents where they narrowly avoided one of those ambushes, but there weren't any confrontations. Naruto wasn't sure but there seemed to be a lot less people moving around, and it rather disturbed him. He wondered if any other people had fallen victim to whoever had killed the people that Team Kekkei Genkai had found.

The center of the Forest of Death was a large building that looked like a combination of a hotel, a sports arena and a prison. It was large and squat with cameras in the trees and what looked like either gyms or torture facilities in other buildings around it. Naruto noticed that none of the windows had bars on them, but that didn't really convince him that there weren't prisoners being held there somewhere for some reason.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stepped onto the path that led up to the building and looked around, noticing a small camera in one of the trees. He didn't give any sign that he had seen it, but looked past it and grinned at the others.

"Whadda say we wait for the others for a while and see who comes in second place?" he grinned.

* * *

Kimimaro was prepared for almost anything, but the situation that presented itself was a little strange. There was a rustle of leaves, and a young man with greyish hair and glasses came running out, closely pursued by three ninja. The first was wearing Konoha's emblem, the others wore Iwa's. None of the little group seemed to have noticed that they had just run into someone else's camp.

"Alright!" one of the Iwa nin cheered, "I love it when prey runs!"

"This is a very interesting situation," Neji said to Kimimaro, catching the Iwa nin's attention and even the Konoha nin stopped, "I mean, they just run straight into us. What do you think?"

Haku nodded, "And they're ganging up three to one. Not at all worthy of a real ninja. Even if we cheat, there are some unspoken rules."

Kimimaro and Neji refrained from reminding him about how they usually trained, but then again, in Kimimaro's opinion there were rules that were meant to be upheld when it was in their best interests to uphold them. When picking a fight with obviously hostile ninja, it was a perfect time to do it, if only to annoy them by being on the moral high ground. For some reason it just seemed to annoy them to know that their enemy was fighting for a moral reason and not just to fight.

Kimimaro smirked and raised on hand with his thumb down, "Crush them."

The Konoha nin was forgotten as the Iwa trio and Team Kekkei Genkai stared one another down. Neji was smirking, Haku was in a fighting stance, and Kimimaro was simply watching to see what they would do.

"Ladies first," one of the Iwa nin said to Haku.

For a moment there was complete and total silence, then Haku began to make a series of hand seals and his eyes had narrowed.

That was when the trio noticed that the air had become cold, very cold, and a mist had risen from nowhere. The trio didn't even see the barrage of senbon that had them paralyzed and they could only watch in horror as ice slowly crept up their legs and bodies towards their heads.

"I. Am. Not. A. Girl." Haku said softly, speaking each word carefully.

It seemed that after a lot of stress, Haku had finally cracked. This happened every so often. After a while of being mistaken for a girl by his enemies, Haku would really attack them. Actually, that was one of the best ways for Haku, who hated to fight, to actually be serious. He would be fine again after that, and the whole thing would start up again.

One of the ninja regained his senses enough to use his kunai to break the ice, and his teammates did the same. All of them stood back-to-back, looking for any sign of their attackers, who seemed to have melted into the mist. They didn't have full control of their limbs however and they were shaking a little bit as their muscles twitched every so often.

"You know," Kimimaro's voice said somewhere in the mist, "I was going to say that we should hold back since we don't know who we're facing, but I think I'm in a bad mood, and it really is getting boring to hear people constantly calling you a girl. Do what you want with them, Ryou. We'll clean up when you're done with them."

"What?" Neji sounded annoyed.

"What would you do if someone called you a girl?" Kimimaro asked.

"They wouldn't have to worry much about girls at all after that,"

"I rest my case,"

There was an annoyed sound but Neji seemed to understand what he meant.

The mist was getting thicker as the Iwa team huddled closer together.

"Sensatsu Suisho!" Haku's voice sounded from somewhere near the water.

There was a splashing sound and Kimimaro knew that water was rising up and forming into very long, surprisingly sharp needles of ice. This wasn't his most powerful attack, but it was pretty dangerous. Kimimaro detected the hint of motion followed by screams that showed that the attack had been successful. There were other startled cries and moans from the Iwa group.

"I'm going to let you live," Haku's voice said calmly, "I didn't strike any vital organs. No one should die in this stupid Exam. No matter what Anko-san said, but it will be a very long time before you're able to perform missions. Leave the scroll and go."

There were some moans and finally someone spoke up.

"Alright, we give." one of them said, "The scroll's on the ground. We're going to go back the way that we came."

"We won't follow you," Haku said.

There was a sound of two people, carrying a third walking off and jumping into the trees slowly and laboriously.

"You didn't leave us anything," Neji said, "You're as bad as Taiki. Other people would love to work on their attacks as well. And I had a cruddy job last mission."

"I'm sure the next one will be better," Haku said as the mist thinned. He was back as his usual passive, polite self.

It was only then that they noticed that the Konoha nin was still there.

The gray-haired young man seemed to notice that all attention had focused onto him and he raised his arms to show that he was unarmed and not a threat. Kimimaro finally recognized him as someone who had had a brief conversation with Naruto after he had publicly embarrassed that Sora person, something Kabuto. He looked like a complete pushover, but Haku did too. That wasn't worth a whole lot to him.

"Could we possibly suspend the Exam rivalries for a while?" he asked, "You see, I was separated from my team, and since you already have two scrolls and I don't have one, it wouldn't be to your advantage to attack."

"And what's to stop you from trying to take the scrolls from us?" Neji asked calmly, "We have no idea what your power really is."

Kabuto smiled a little bitterly, "If I could fight against three armed opponents, you wouldn't have that second scroll. Also, my team already has our scrolls. It was really just bad luck that we were separated. I'm very grateful for your help though, even if I was only an addition to getting your last scroll, so if you want, I'll show you my data cards."

"Data cards?" Kimimaro asked curiously, "You've collected the statistics of the participants of the Exams?"

"Exactly," Kabuto nodded, "I have some data on every person in the Exams, and since you helped me, I'll help you. If you help me find my team, I'll allow you to see as many as you'd like."

Ah, that's what he was doing. Kimimaro felt a part of him relaxing. This made sense. He didn't have any real protection, and he didn't have money, so he was bartering valuable information in return for their help. Trades like this that were not strictly legal were common in these kinds of competitions. Also, Kusa and Konoha didn't really have any kind of hostility towards one another yet, so this would be allowed within their villages much more than it would be between Konoha and Kumo.

Neji looked over at Kimimaro and nodded. He was willing to make the exchange. Even if there was a chance they would end up fighting one another. Actually, some part of Neji was probably hoping for it. Haku nodded as well. He was willing to take the risk of a battle if the information was worth it.

"We agree," Kimimaro said calmly, "My name is Yuuma, this is Ryou and Haru."

"I'm Yakushi Kabuto," Kabuto said bowing, "I'm glad that we could come to an arrangement."

That was probably only so true. Kimimaro wasn't sure that he liked the man, but at the same time, he couldn't sense any desire to attack them. Kimimaro added Kabuto's name to his possible threats list and calmly walked over.

"I would like to see your cards on Uchiha Yumi, the person who my friend Taiki embarrassed named Sora, and an Aburame Shino," Kimimaro said then turning to the others, asked, "Is there anyone who you want files on?"

"Yes," Haku said thoughtfully, "though it is a little underhanded, can we see the files for three people named Aoi, Kiyoko, and Ren. They're also from Kusa, but I don't remember anything about them and they seem dangerous."

Kabuto laughed a little, "You are underhanded. Well, it's no matter. Is that everything?"

Kimimaro and Haku looked at Neji, who shrugged, "I think that the ones you asked about are the only ones worth worrying about. After all we know all about Taiki's team and Rei's team...but there's a person who I'm vaguely interested in, but I don't know her name. She's a Konoha nin with buns in her hair around my age."

Kabuto looked thoughtful for a moment and looked through his cards until he seemed to find one that matched the description.

"Ah, you mean Tenten-chan," Kabuto said looking at one of the cards, "She's a little mysterious, as is Yuki-chan, but I have some information on both of them."

Kabuto handed Kimimaro seven plain little cards with the pictures of each person on them with Neji and Haku both looking over his shoulder. Uchiha Yumi was mysterious. There was little past history about her, but it appeared that she specialized in fire and earth techniques. She had transferred over to the Academy only a year before becoming a Genin and had completed a bunch of D-rank missions and one A-rank. It was also noted that she hadn't activated the Sharingan. At least, she hadn't shown it off. Her weapon of choice seemed to be using two kunai at once like twin swords, a very interesting way to fight...

Sora's card had much more data to it. Apparently, Sora had been born to one of the twelve ninja guardians, a group that swore itself to protect the fire daimyo, who had gotten a little overzealous with his beliefs. He had been left at a monastery and forgotten about until Danzou came into power. Danzou had ordered that he be brought to Konoha had made into an official shinobi of the Leaf. Sora was trained personally for some reason that the card didn't say, but it mentioned that he had wind natured Chakra, like Naruto, and he used a variant of a hand claw that from the picture looked pretty deadly. There was also something strange about his arm. The card didn't know too much, but hinted that there had been some kind of test made on it.

Shino's card was the most informative. He was the son of the head of his clan, and, as such, the heir to the title of clan head. He was already considered exceptional at his family's style of jutsu and had received his second queen at the age of seven. Despite his accomplishments, there was little known about his personal life. Either he was completely reclusive, or people had a tendency to avoid him due to his habit of talking about bugs and not showing much of his face. On the whole his skill level seemed very good, but the most dangerous thing about him was the fact that he was so difficult to read. He could be thinking almost anything.

Aoi, Kiyoko and Ren seemed like pretty standard Genin, and that by itself was odd. They had completed a lot of D-rank missions and three C-ranks, but none of their skills looked all that interesting. Their sensei was briefly mentioned, and on the whole they looked like they should have been knocked out of the Exam pretty quickly. That wasn't the feeling that he had gotten from those three. If anything, they were hiding their potential.

Mentally, Kimimaro moved those three higher up on his list. They were now probable threats instead for possible ones.

Tenten seemed to have been from a civilian family that had been killed during a skirmish between some Missing nin and Konoha before the Sandaime was killed. It had been a minor fight, but the people of that town where the fight took place suffered many losses, including Tenten's parents and siblings. She had been taken to Konoha and made into the live-in assistant of a weapon shop. The master of the shop had funded her going to the academy when the girl showed an interest in weaponry and fighting. Her skills were mostly concerned with weapons and using them, but she didn't seem to have any elemental affinity or real strengths in the realm of ninjutsu. On the whole, she might be dangerous, but she was not anything for them to worry about. Why was Neji looking so thoughful then?

Neji had been called a genius when he was younger, but sometimes Kimimaro fought hard to tell just how his mind worked. It seemed like he was forming some kind of plan, and it involved Tenten somehow. They would have to ask him what he was planning later.

Kimimaro looked over at the others to make sure that they were done and handed the cards back to Kabuto.

"Thank you," he said, observing all formalities, "now, did your teammates and you have a point where you would meet up."

Kabuto looked a little embarrassed, "Not really," he said, scratching the back of his head, "this kind of thing wasn't something we planned for. Since we have our scrolls, I think the best turn of decision would be to just go to the center."

"Alright," Haku said, "there's a good chance that your teammates also went that way. I hope you don't get disqualified or anything."

Kabuto laughed a little, "It's not too big of a deal. There are some strange people running around in this Exam, and well...there's always next time. It's not like this Exam is all that important."

Kimimaro caught an odd glance in their direction when he said that, almost as if he was threatening them...no...That wasn't a threat...that was a warning.

Kabuto knew something, about the Exams that he wasn't going to tell them. It was likely that he was more of a threat than any of the others, but at the moment, he just seemed like he didn't want them to get involved.

Kimimaro was liking this person less and less as time went on. Well, there was one thing he could say for sure: this Exam was going to be very...interesting.

* * *

Team Dattebayo didn't have to wait all that long for Team Shugo. It had only taken two sparring matches between Naruto and Sasuke for them to turn up. Sakura had decided to be fun and throw in an exploding tag to catch their attention. Naruto and Sasuke both had to dodge and ended up almost jumping on top of Gaara only to be caught by his sand.

"You guys need to stop hyper-focusing," Sakura shook her head. "I thought sensei told you that..."

"Yeah, yeah," Sasuke muttered.

"Looks like you're all alright," Hinata said with a smile, "If you're sparring then nothing too serious attacked you."

"Yes," Sai agreed, "We wouldn't be able to keep either of your quiet if you had. Or we might have to get some nets and catch you because your heads would have gotten so big you would have floated away..."

"Do the words 'shut up or I will tape it shut' mean anything to you?" Sasuke asked.

"Not much," Sai said, "Maybe glue would work better."

"How about my sand?" Gaara suggested.

"Whose side are you on, anyways?" Sai asked.

"...whichever one I like at the moment..." Gaara said thoughtfully.

Naruto laughed along with the others, and felt a part of him relaxing again. They still had to wait for Team Kekkei Genkai, and they had a meeting to do, but things were starting to feel normal again.

"Yuuma, Ryou and Haru are late," Sakura remarked, "That's funny, I thought that they'd get here before us..."

"Haru's going to be so annoyed," Hinata sighed, "He's starting to feel left out of all the action. You're going to need to let him show some of his new techniques off soon or he's going to use them on you."

"Well, he'll probably get plenty of chances to use them now," Naruto said, "I don't think that this little obstacle course was the last part of this Exam. In fact, I'd be shocked if it was."

"I know what you mean," Gaara agreed.

"Hn," Sasuke said thoughtfully.

Well, whatever happened, they would face it then. Besides, they still needed to wait for the others.

As it turned out, they ended up waiting until evening, playing cards and holding sparring matches. One other team turned up while they were waiting and looked at them all like they were insane, but nothing else happened. There was little to herald their arrival. One minute they weren't there, and the next, they had jumped down from the trees. There was another person with them.

Hinata looked a little nervous, and it took Naruto a moment to recognize him as Kabuto. He moved cautiously. This was odd, and Naruto didn't like things that he didn't understand. They set him on edge and made him feel unsure of what to do next.

"Hey, guys," he asked, "What's going on?"

"We agreed to escort Kabuto here to see if his team made it here," Neji said, "As payment we got a little bit of information on some opponents."

"Please don't speak so loud, Haru-san," Kabuto said, "If anyone hears, we'll all get into trouble."

"Security is much stricter here than in Kusa," Sakura remarked.

"Really?" Kabuto looked interested.

"Well, things that…aren't strictly legal are done all the time," Gaara spoke up, "As long as no one is truly hurt by the information, and it's nothing that will lead to really killing them, it's not too big of a deal."

"Smaller villages are usually a little more lax than bigger ones, I suppose," Kabuto agreed, "It does make sense given that they have to be more concerned with their own survival than the larger ones."

There was definitely something wrong with Kabuto, Naruto decided, he was way too polite. They really needed to hold that meeting.

"Well, see you, Kabuto," Naruto said brightly.

"I hope we don't become matched up in the Exams," Kabuto said, "Or the finals."

And with those slightly strange words, he left them.

"Does everyone here seem to have their own hidden agenda, or is it just me?" Sai asked.

"I hope that it's just you," Sakura said watching Kabuto's back.

* * *

"Ok, so now what?" Naruto asked as all nine of them stared at the scroll in the center of an empty room. They had been looking at it for a few minutes, but nothing had come to him.

"I think we're supposed to open our scrolls now," Haku said, "At least, that's what the message up there seems to say."

"Are you sure that it's not just giving bad advice?" Neji said, "Because that sounds like one of the old sayings that my family used to teach me."

There were some halfhearted laughs from everyone, but no one was quite sure just what to do with this. The scroll on the wall did seem to indicate that that was what they were supposed to do. Well, it wasn't like they had any better idea.

"Ryou sounds like he might be right. Let's try it," Naruto said after a moment of thought.

Quickly, all three teams had laid their scrolls down in the center of the room and opened them, waiting to see what would happen.

There was a sudden puff of smoke from the scrolls, and everyone waited to see what had been summoned out of them.

"Brats!" A familiar, irritated voice yelled.

"You're kidding," Sasuke said.

As the smoke cleared, a very annoyed looking Zabuza came into view. His arms were crossed, and his usual scowl was more of a snarl. Something told Naruto that their supposed sensei was really annoyed about something for some reason.

"You idiot kids," Zabuza yelled, "Did you think about the fact that as you're Kusa Genin, you've only got one instructor? Did you actually consider that you would all be summoning me at the same time? Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it is to be summoned in three different directions at the same bloody time?"

"Not really," Sai said, smiling.

"Nor do we really care," Kimimaro cut in.

"This means we pass though, right?" Haku asked.

"Thanks for coming all this way to tell us, Honda-sensei!" Sakura said brightly.

Zabuza had fallen into a long chain of successive swearwords and ranting about brats who didn't listen to people and just what happened to them.

"By the way, Honda-sensei," Haku asked thoughtfully, "We're here a day early, what do we do?"

"Whadda ya think, fem-boy?" Zabuza asked, "Get some beauty sleep. By the way, I've got something for you..."

Glaring at Haku as he was sure the boy had done something to warrant his hatred, Zabuza handed him what looked like a letter. Naruto didn't recognize the handwriting, and apparently neither did Haku, who looked mildly confused but took it anyways. He didn't open it, and Naruto couldn't blame him with the Demon of the Bloody Mist glaring down at him like he would have liked nothing more than to gut him.

"Um, is this from someone that I know?" Haku asked.

"Yes," Zabuza snarled.

Something seemed to connect with Haku and all he said was "Ah,"

Sai, Sasuke and Naruto snickered.

"It looks like psycho-sensei doesn't approve..." Sai whispered.

"It looks like psycho-sensei is going to have to deal with it," Kimimaro hissed.

"What did you call me, maggot?" Zabuza snarled.

"Psycho-sensei," Sai said with a straight face.

Naruto sometimes had to really admire him. He was either the bravest person that Naruto had ever seen or suicidal. It was hard to tell which one.

"Sai, you're either fearless or you have a death wish," Gaara said looking at Zabuza's face.

Zabuza looked like he wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh or just kill them all. It was a rather amusing expression to watch as the two urges fought one another for control. Finally he just snarled, "You're a brave kid, brat."

Something flickered once in his eyes that Naruto didn't catch.

"So, you're here to do what?" Neji asked.

"Supposedly, I'm supposed to 'congratulate you on your passing this part of the Exams and tell you that you're just getting started.'" Zabuza rolled his eyes.

"I thought so," Hinata said.

"So, keep your guard up, trust only one another, and all the other junk that you've had drilled into you since you first became real students," Zabuza said, "Also, though I am still annoyed, but I had a good meal and drink and I'm feeling a little more generous than usual, I'm going to give you a warning: beware of sabotage or sabotage others. As long as it's not in the arena, it's perfectly legal. Ninja don't play by the rules; we make the rules play by us."

"Rules are subjective," Gaara said, stating one of Jiraiya's many quips, "and everything is perfectly fair as long as you win."

Zabuza seemed to approve of their attitude. Apparently, he hated idealism as much as he hated everything else.

"I'm supposed to lead you to your rooms if you're early," Zabuza told, "So come on and don't waste my time. I've got better things to do."

"Like make out with his sword," Sasuke hissed to Naruto, who grinned. He wondered if it had a name.

They followed Zabuza up a flight of stairs into a hallway with doors on either side. It looked like they were all temporary quarters or something like that. There was a door at the end of the hall that looked important, and Naruto assumed that it led outside or to where the next assignment was going to be given.

"All teams get their own rooms that have been reserved for you if you passed," Zabuza said, "Aren't you boys lucky?"

The boys all glared at him.

"We are not perverts!" Gaara said angrily.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess most of you are a little young for puberty to properly set in," Zubazu smirked over at Haku and Kimimaro, "And you don't get that privilege do you?"

"Are you drunk?" Kimimaro asked.

"A little,"

"Get lost,"

"Excuse me," a quiet voice said behind Zabuza.

Naruto turned around to see Hayate, the sick looking guy from Kinen.

"I'm going to have to ask you to quiet down a little," Hayate said, coughing a little, "You see, there are already people here, and your students look tired as well. Thank you for leading them here."

The dismissal was obvious. Zabuza glared and stormed off, mumbling a little about sake and annoying kids. Naruto sighed and followed Sasuke and Sakura into their shared room. Tsunade would be furious. She was very strict about not having coed things like this. She said that it led to Jiraiya-ism, and the boys were happy to comply.

Naruto sat down on his pillow, thinking about when to call the meeting and noticed it. On the nightstand between his and Sasuke's bed, there was a note. Naruto picked it up and looked at it. It was written in an unfamiliar, scrawling, untidy hand, almost like it had been written by someone who wasn't used to writing, or was writing with their other hand. The message itself was what really caught Naruto's attention. It was simple, only one line, but that line sent a slight shiver down Naruto's spine.

_I'm on your side._

**Omake:** All Seeing Eyes

"So, Hinata," a ten year old Sakura said, "can the Tenshi Byakugan see everything?"

"Everything," Hinata nodded.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes, why?" Hinata was starting to look confused.

"It must be really distracting to use it then..." Sakura said thoughtfully, "And just think, you're dad might just have been a bigger pervert than Jiraiya..."

"What are you talking about?!" Hinata's face was very red.

"Well...you can see the guys without their clothes on, right?" Sakura said.

"What! No!" Hinata gasped, turning redder.

"So tell me, what does Naruto look like," Sakura asked with a very sick smile.

Naruto chose that moment to come up behind them, he had had a very rough morning of training, and his shirt was off.

"Hey, guys," he said cheerfully, "What's up?"

Hinata looked at him, going, if possible redder as the previous question sounded in her mind. As she looked at him, she felt her entire body going hot as she did something that she hadn't done in at least three years.

"N-nothing, N-Naruto-kun," she whispered breathlessly.

"What's wrong?" Naruto, very concerned asked, "You haven't called me that in a long time. Are you mad about something? What did I do?"

"Tell him, Hinata!" Sakura crowed.

Hinata's poor mind couldn't think of a way to get out of the situation other than to shut down and wait for Naruto to go away. She fainted on the spot.

"GAH, Hinata!" Naruto cried as she fell into his arms.

A spark of killer intent flashed through Naruto's senses as he turned around to see a very mad looking Neji.

"Naruto..." he growled, "What did you do?"

"This isn't what it looks like!"

Naruto spent the rest of the afternoon running for his life while Sakura watched and drank lemonade.

Naruto never did figure out what had made Hinata stutter and faint like that.

* * *

_Hello everyone! First I would like to apologize to those people whose reviews I didn't answer. Because of finals and junk, there were nights I just didn't get on, and after about three or four days, I don't really remember to respond to a review. Thank you all anyways, I'll do better next time. I promise._

_Next, thank all of you for helping me smash my old record. I'm so happy!_

_Finally, I'm happy to say that my finals are over, so you can expect some faster chappies. Aren't you all thrilled?_

_Additional notes:_

_Yakuza: Basically, it's the Japanese mafia. Sometimes they are called Yankees in schools, for example: Uotani from Fruits Basket. Actually, Gamabunta has the same speech patterns as a stereotypical yakuza in the anime and the sword that he carries around is also fairly stereotypical. Who gets amused by gangster toads other than me?_

_Pandora's Box: In Greek Mythology, Pandora, the first woman, was given a jar by Zeus, the king of the gods, and told never to open it. Pandora was a very curious woman, and the suspense of having this box that she couldn't open up ate away at her. Finally, one day she opened the jar and out came Envy, Strife, Lying, and all other such nasties. Pandora shut the jar, but only Hope remained in the jar. In modernized language, we refer to the jar as a box. If you already know this, please forgive me. I'm not sure how much mythology is common knowledge to most people and how much is only privy to mythology/folklore obsessed people like me._

_Thumbs down: Has anyone but me noticed that this is a fairly common gesture in anime? More so than it is in the US at least, so I'm going to us it from time to time. I want to use some of the themes, without saying things like 'sweatdropped' or 'mushroom sighed' which I don't think are really appropriate for fanfiction. Technically, this is a book._

_Kabuto: I really hate how the anime's been portraying him. While I think that he's a little sadistic, he's always really been kind of an enigma to me, and now they're turning him into the stereotypical mad-scientist. I never saw him like that. If you look at how he healed Sakura and attempted to convince Naruto not to kill himself by fighting him it seems like he's working for his own ends. I doubt that that was what Orochimaru really wanted. Also, I always rather admired him for making those data cards._

_Data cards: A lot of stories I've read seemed to sneer a little bit at these, but really, I think they're rather impressive. Having basic information on a person and their abilities can be very, very useful. Especially for making up a strategy against them. For instance, Naruto is a short range fighter. The best way to counter him would to use mid to long range attacks against him._

_Sora's weapon: What was the name of that thing? I couldn't find it..._

_Tenten: Yes, we get a little of a past for her. I've noticed that she really doesn't seem to have a real past, and in the Chuunin Exam arc, her last name is never mentioned. I've read some stories where she's the daughter of a weapon's store owner, but I think I like this one better. She's going to have some problems in this story, so rout for her. _

_Translations_

_Sensatsu Suisho-A Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death (nice name): A jutsu that freezes water into the shape of thin needles which then home in on the opponent from all directions. To perform it, the user must be near a body of water. Haku is able to perform this jutsu with one-handed hand seals. _

_Thanks for all of your support!_

_Review!_


	20. Part 2: Preliminaries

_Author's Corner: Yosh! We are finally at the preliminaries. I've been really looking forward to this, so I'm happy. I hope you enjoy this. I've been thinking a lot about this, so I hope that it works out as I planned. Prepare to see some egos fall down the tubes._

_As a random note about the manga: Now that was unexpected! Brilliant! Once again, I am in awe._

_On the anime: I'm seriously getting ready to kill Yuukimaru. That guy really, really annoys me for some reason. _

_Disclaimer: Pryotra does not own Naruto. Once she achieves world domination however, that may be a different story._

_Thank you, Ibby-kun, for betaing for me!_

_The infamous list: _

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumby night.**_

_**-Joseph Mankiewicz**_

* * *

The meeting of Hakumei took place at a late hour in Team Dattebayo's room, after making sure that there wasn't a hidden camera in there. There wasn't. Apparently, no one really wanted to see the Genin dress and undress. The meeting was quick, it had to be. For one thing, teams kept coming in at all hours of the night, and they didn't want to bring too much attention to themselves. Thankfully, most people would think they were cooking up a strategy to use with one another the next day. Naruto allowed them to keep that delusion.

The meeting itself was quick. Kimimaro described what they had found, and Naruto, with Sasuke and Sakura's interjections, described what happened in the forest. They also produced the paper with the message that Naruto had found. That produced a lot of discussion.

"So, it's either written by someone with terrible handwriting, or it was written by someone who's using their other hand," Neji said thoughtfully, "So instead of saying who it _was_ let's work out who it _wasn't_."

"Sounds good," Haku agreed, "I don't think that it was Kabuto-san."

"Me neither," Kimimaro and Neji both said at the same time.

"It wasn't Yumi," Sasuke supplied.

"Nope," Naruto agreed.

"So, that leaves us with...nearly everyone else," Hinata sighed, "Other than Kinen of course, since we know that they're on our side."

"So, basically, we have to wait until they reveal themselves to us," Sakura said.

"Sounds like it," Haku said thoughtfully.

"I hate waiting..." Sai sighed.

In the end it was decided to wait to see what happened and to keep their guards up. After all, they didn't even know if the note was genuine or a hoax created because someone was suspicious and wanted them to reveal themselves.

"By the way," Hinata said as they began to get ready to return to their own rooms, "Taiki, we're going to talk to Frog Face about Fuzzy Wuzzy when we get home. And don't you dare not tell us if you're worried about something. We're family. Family doesn't keep dark secrets."

Naruto grinned a little bit at her.

"I'm fine," he said, "Really, there's nothing to worry about."

"When you get like that, you make me worry more," Hinata sighed, "I swear..."

"Really," Naruto repeated, "It was just a bit of a shock. I haven't really had the time to think about Fuzzy since I was seven. When it came out it startled me. That's all."

"Remember this, Taiki," Hinata said looking away a little bit, "When you don't tell people what's wrong, they worry. Fuzzy is a big problem, but it's not as big of a problem as it could be. Let's talk to him about this later, and then we can figure out what happened. It's probably completely natural. It looks like the seal is designed to let out a little Chakra anyways."

"Thanks, Rei." Naruto grinned.

The others exchanged bored looks as Hinata blushed a little and Naruto looked a little confused. The looks were pretty obvious: this guy is so oblivious that it's disgusting.

* * *

Morning was not a welcome thing. Naruto hadn't wanted to wake up after the effort from the meeting. He was tired, and the team in the room to his right was very, very loudly celebrating their success in the Exam. Naruto had a feeling that it was the Sound team that he had fought, but didn't bother to see if he was right.

Naruto slept later than usual, but dragged himself up in time to catch breakfast before he missed it. It was a rather sorry breakfast, only a bowl of rice and some fish, but Naruto had long since learned not to complain about food when placed in front of him for free.

He was surprised when the Chuunin who was guarding the door for some reason that escaped Naruto told them that they would be summoned into the Main Room, which seemed to be were the orientation for the Exams was held, at noon. That would be the official end of that part of the Exams. Naruto would rather have it end at a better time, but he supposed that this way, he could rest and prepare himself for whatever was going to happen during the next part.

Mostly, Naruto ended up playing shogi with Sasuke, Neji didn't want to play with him, since he couldn't really think of what to do with himself. If the next part involved fighting, he would just have to make sure that he didn't use any techniques that may be recognized as coming from Konoha. That was a problem, since most of the best techniques he had were either variants of the kage bunshin or things taught to him by Jiraiya that were very memorable, like Rasengan. Naruto would be limited, but then again, that limit would probably make him look like just another Genin with slightly above average skills. That was what he wanted.

Naruto wasn't the best shogi player in the world, and Sasuke managed to have his ego stroked a great deal before the bell to announce the noon meeting finally came. Naruto sat up with a sign of relief. Sasuke glowered a little as he packed up the board.

"Awful timing," he muttered.

"Only for you," Naruto sighed, "I was getting tired of watching you destroy me over and over again with that same stupid smirk on your face like this was something new. You know that I can't play this game all that well."

"Then think and don't talk," Sasuke said rolling his eyes, "I've seen you come up with good strategies before."

"Only on the field," Naruto replied, "This is completely different."

"Only in your head," Sasuke said.

Haku stuck his head into the room where the two were.

"Are you ready?" he asked, "I heard someone say that the people who show up late get disqualified."

"What?" Sasuke growled, "I didn't hear that!"

"Well, come on," Haku said motioning them, "Just leave the board. I don't think that anyone would want it anyways."

Naruto, Sasuke and Haku ran down the hall toward the door that Naruto had thought led to the orientation room. He was right. It was a large, stone room with a computer that seemed to be there to announce something. There were balconies that all surrounded a large clear area at the base of a statue of two hands performing a seal. There was already a large group of teams in that clear area. All three of them took their places with their respective teams. Sakura gave a reproving look to Naruto and Sasuke, and Neji and Kimimaro both hissed something at Haku who looked apologetic and glanced over at Sasuke.

"Shogi nut," Neji whispered.

Kimimaro looked at Neji in a slightly amused way.

"That came from you?"

"I don't forget when a major tournament is going on just to play shogi," Neji replied.

Kimimaro smirked a little. Sasuke glared over at them, but didn't say anything. He was trying to muster up what remained of his dignity and ignore them completely. Besides, there were other, far more important things happening.

A set of doors that was in the opposite direction of the one they had come into opened revealing the Godaime Hokage along with a guard of Chuunin and Jounin instructors from every village participating. It had been five years since Naruto had seen Danzou. Now, he stood in his Hokage robes of white trimmed with red and the traditional hat. His face was still wrapped in bandages, and he leaned on a cane. Part of Naruto was amazed that he looked so weak. The other was amazed that he didn't look like he had aged a single day.

Danzou looked over the crowd of children with a completely unreadable expression on his face. His one eye was hard and sharp, and his grip was relaxed. Although he was watchful, Danzou didn't see a single person there as a threat to him.

'Just you wait,' Naruto thought.

"Greetings all," Hayate said, coughing a little and smiling in a slightly sickly way, "My name is Gekko Hayate, and I will be the examiner of this part of the Exams. Before we discuss that, the Godaime Hokage has a few words to say to you."

"Welcome," Danzou said calmly walking up, "All of you who have passed this part of the Exam have proven that you have the ability to service on an extended mission. Congratulations. Yet, this is not the end as many of you have most liked deduced. A Chuunin is only a temporary step before reaching Jounin or Special Jounin. You have proven that you have the ability to survive against the elements and stress. Now you will be tested to see if you have the ability to survive against your fellow ninja."

"I will tell you each something: the Chuunin Exams are not a way to help with foreign relations," Danzou said with a thin smile, "They are an organized form of war between all nations. Nothing more. That is why even nations who are enemies send their Genin here. All other things said are pretty lies told to keep the daimyos and the civilians happy."

"The final Exams are scheduled to take place in one month. This allows lords and nobles as well as business men from around the world to arrive and know who is participating. These lords enjoy betting on participants, and they are able to see promising talent that they will request from the Genin's village in the future. This year is a unique one, as so many of you have managed to pass. Unfortunately for all of you, there is a maximum number of Genin that can participate. There are far too many of you. As such, for the first time in years, we will be holding a preliminary round. You will be matched against one another in a one-on-one battle. The winner will proceed to the final Exam. Furthermore, I declare all teams temporarily dissolved for the duration of the preliminaries. They will begin immediately. I give all who feel that they are not able to compete in this preliminary the chance to forfeit now, as we are not responsible if one of you who is too tired to fight is killed."

This statement led to a very long and ominous silence as the participants digested this piece of information.

Slowly, a few people raised their hands. One good thing about this was that those who had raised their hands were ushered off through another set of doors, probably to some underground passage or other way to get back into the main city of Konoha quickly. Naruto was sure that was something like that somewhere. Danzou wasn't going to want to fight his way through if he didn't have to.

"I see," Danzou said in an emotionless tone as those who had chosen to stay watched him apprehensively, "Those of you who have chosen to stay, go up to the balcony, and this computer will randomly select your matches."

Naruto filed up the flight of stairs and looked around to see who else had passed. The other Grass team was there, talking to their sensei in quiet voices. Naruto doubted that he had ever seen a man quite that large and...well ageless. He could have been anywhere from fifteen to twenty-something. That was by itself strange. Yumi, Shino and Kiba had made it through and were talking to Kakashi, or rather Kiba was talking to Kakashi and Yumi and Shino were both nearby. The Sand Team had made it. Temari was looking over at Matsuri with a look that told him that it was no thanks to her that they had made it so far. The Sound team had also managed to pass. They were talking to their sensei, and Naruto noticed that the one, Dosu's, eyes met his once but he couldn't read the look. The girl who Neji had confronted in the Exams was there, but her team seemed to have forfeited. The same was true for Sora. Naruto was hoping to get matched up against him from the first. Just because that smirk on his face was annoying.

Naruto stood with Sakura and Sasuke as he waited for the computer to come up with the combinations. The computer had turned on and it seemed to be shuffling the names up and sorting through them very quickly to choose a random selection. Final there was a pinging sound and two names appeared on the board.

**Inuzuka Kiba vs. Yuuma**

"Oh yeah," Kiba punched one fist into the air, "I'm up! Wait. Aw, I got a weak opponent. Come on, Akimaru, let's get this over with."

Kiba had turned away from the others and was stomping down the stairs, grumbling a little about how he had wanted to fight Shino or maybe Sora or at least one of the tough looking Kusa nin.

Naruto looked over at Kimimaro, who hadn't even turned a hair at Kiba's statement. He seemed more or less amused by the whole thing. Calmly, instead of using the stairs, Kimimaro jumped down, landing on his feet in a crouch and walking up to where Hayate waited. Kiba joined them a second later, giving Kimimaro a slightly confused look, but doing his best to look like he knew everything that was going on.

"This match is between Inuzuka Kiba of Konoha and Yuuma of Kusa. There is no time limit for this battle, and all weapons are permitted."

"Before we start, are you sure you don't want to forfeit?" Kiba asked.

Kimimaro looked at Kiba thoughtfully.

"You know," he said, "I was intending to go easy on you, but now...I think I'm going to take you a little more seriously than I had meant to. If only because you annoy me."

Kiba started to growl a little in response to that.

"That mutt-kid's going to die, isn't he?" Zabuza asked, coming up behind Naruto.

"I wouldn't say die," Sakura said thoughtfully, "but his ego is going to be in shreds after this. Yuuma looks as if he'll use his tongue as a mop for this arena."

Sasuke nodded without saying anything. He seemed to be more interested in the actual match than giving a whole lot of commentary on it. Kimimaro's battles were usually interesting.

Naruto heard something and looked over his shoulder to see Shino, Yumi and Kakashi walking towards them.

"So, Kusa nin," Yumi said softly to Sasuke, "Do you think that your friend will be able to survive an attack by a Konoha nin?"

"We'll see," Sasuke said calmly.

Shino said nothing.

"Hey, Yuuma," Kiba said, "I have a great idea. The loser has to address the winner as '-sama' and bow to them. What do you say?"

"If that's the stake you want to play..." Kimimaro said, "Personally, I would have had something more like the loser has to tell the winner all of their teammates abilities, but they're your stakes."

"Begin!" Hayate called.

Kiba wasted no time on further speech, he charged Kimimaro with the first punch, but only got air as Kimimaro evaded him. Kiba punched again, but met only air.

"Stop running away and fight me!" Kiba growled, jumping up into the air and aiming a kick at Kimimaro's chest.

Kimimaro stood his ground this time, and Kiba's grin turned into a look of shock, pain, and horrified disgust when Kimimaro's rib cage came out and caught his foot like a trap. Kiba twisted his foot, but it remained where it was.

"H-how," Kiba stuttered out.

"Unorthodox, aren't I?" Kimimaro asked, a smirk on his face, "This is the kekkei genkai of my family, Inuzuka-san. You've seen it before once. Don't you remember?"

Naruto noticed that Danzou had straightened where he stood, his eyes on Kimimaro, and had a pretty good idea of what he was thinking. This kid had just displayed a kekkei genkai that was thought to have been extinct for a long time, and the family itself had been killed off. How was it that someone had inherited it? How many other people had it? Also, Kiri had kept the power of its clans a careful secret. That would mean that Danzou had no idea what attacks Kimimaro could use or just how strongly the Kekkei Genkai had manifested itself.

"Is that...the Shikotsu Myaku?" Shino asked.

"Don't be stupid," Yumi said dismissively, "The entire Kaguya clan was killed in an attack on Kiri, everyone knows that. Also, the bloodline had become tainted with outside bloodlines, so the power had died out."

"Yumi-san, I'm sorry, but it appears to be the Shikotsu Myaku," Shino insisted, "I don't know how, but it seems that one of them survived and with the full power of the bloodline."

Meanwhile Kiba was still attempting to wrest his leg free, until finally Kimimaro allowed him to. Kimimaro was now in a fighter's crouch. It looked like he had decided to stop playing with him and truly defeat him.

"You...that hand..." Kiba breathed.

"Yes, that was me," Kimimaro admitted in a careless tone, "I wanted someone to experiment on. You have an ego problem. I thought it was perfect. Now, enough games. Come at me with everything you have."

Kiba growled, "You're going to regret saying that, freak. Come on Akimaru, let's turn this guy into dog food."

"That was quiet possibly the worst 'tough' statement that I've heard," Sasuke commented.

Akamaru jumped back onto Kiba's head and Kiba gave it a small pill of some kind. The effect was instantaneous. The usually small, white dog began to grow and darken into a brown color. Also, its teeth, which had been unimpressive, had become long and vicious looking. The monster version of Akamaru growled at Kimimaro, who seemed to be studying it and forming a plan of some kind.

"Shikyaku no Jutsu!" Kiba called, falling to all fours as his nails and teeth grew longer.

Kimimaro extended his hands in a style that Naruto was well accustomed to. This was Kimimaro's weakest attack, but it served as his only long range one where he didn't show off his final attack or his more powerful ones. Naruto had a feeling that Kimimaro wasn't going to show everything, and was trying to only use as few of his attacks as he could. After all, Danzou didn't know just what Kimimaro could do, so he had the element of surprise. Even if they knew that he had the Shikotsu Myaku, no one in Konoha knew how to fight it or what its weaknesses were.

In Naruto's opinion, Kimimaro was sort of the Shikotsu Myaku's last gamble. He had pretty much been given all the powers that the bloodline could offer in the bloodline's attempt to survive. If Kimimaro died, that bloodline went with him, but the chances of him dying weren't too good.

"Teshi Sendan," Kimimaro said calmly.

Kiba didn't understand what Kimimaro was doing until it was almost too late and he had been shot. It was also thanks to the fact that Kimimaro didn't have the greatest aim when he was trying to do a general sweep, so Kiba got to see one of the bones hit the wall about three millimeters from his head. Both Kiba and Akamaru started to run towards Kimimaro running in a zigzag pattern trying not to get hit by the bullets. Kimimaro grazed his shoulders a few times, but Kiba mostly was unscathed as he closed in. Once they were close, they both began their attacks, biting and scratching at Kimimaro, but were finally repelled by a barrage of bones.

Kiba jumped back, panting a little bit, but his eyes lit up when he saw that there was a cut on Kimimaro's arm that was bleeding.

"Heh, I told you that Konoha nin are more powerful than Kusa nin," Kiba grinned, "Next to my ultimate techniques, your little bones are nothing!"

Kimimaro laughed softly.

"What's so funny?!" Kiba yelled.

Kimimaro raised his hand, "This little cut...does it make you happy?" he asked, still smirking, "Only an inexperienced ninja would refer to a technique that didn't kill their opponent in one blow as their 'ultimate technique.'"

Kimimaro charged, not using his bone structure yet, just simple taijutsu.

"There is no such thing as an 'ultimate technique'," Kimimaro said, sending a roundhouse kick that Kiba blocked but was knocked back.

Akamaru charged and jumped, aiming a bite for Kimimaro's head, but he dodged. Kimimaro's speed matched both of theirs exactly. Akamaru took a large bite out of air and skidded to the ground, slightly confused.

"A. True. Ninja. Is. Always. Growing," Kimimaro said between punches, "Always. Learning. Stronger. Techniques. And. Never. Allowing. Themselves. To. Stop."

Kiba had blocked most of Kimimaro's punches and had jumped back, landing next to Akamaru. He had started to really pant, and for the first time was really taking his opponent seriously. He snarled a little bit.

"You don't know anything about strength!" Kiba snarled, "I promised myself that I would be the strongest there was! No, stronger, and you're not going to stop me!"

"I'm curious," Kimimaro asked, still in his crouch, "Why do you think you have to be so strong? Family pride? To bring glory to your village?"

"Neither!" Kiba said, "Because you're an orphan, you might understand. What would you do if someone killed one of your friends?"

"They would be dead before they had taken a step," Kimimaro said in a cold voice.

"Well, I wasn't there!" Kiba yelled, "One of my friends was killed by foreign ninja when he was just a kid. Yeah, he was weak, slow and sometimes I doubted the guy's sanity, but he was still my friend."

Naruto wasn't sure whether he should be angry, or be happy, or just hit Kiba for being stupid. What was he thinking, buying into everything Danzou said just because that one of his friends had been involved? Surely he wouldn't have acted like that... Naruto would have thought out the things he was being told. Particularly when the attack on Iwa revealed that no one knew anything about that assassination. Then again, that was what Tsunade and Jiraiya had taught him maybe without them...

"So I decided that I would find the people who kidnapped them and kill them myself, and no ninja from a washed up, has-been village is going to stop me!" Kiba continued, "Akamaru, let's go!"

"Useless," Kimimaro whispered.

Akamaru jumped close to Kiba and there was a puff of smoke.

"Jujin Bunshin!" Kiba's voice yelled.

The smoke cleared and Kimimaro now faced two replicas of Kiba. Both were grinning at him and panting a little bit. Kimimaro did not appear all that phased by two Kibas any more than he had been by one. He simply changed his stance a little bit. Naruto leaned forwards, looking at Sakura and Sasuke. They were doing the same thing.

Naruto knew that stance really well. It meant that he was prepared to fight a large group of opponents such as Naruto's Kage Bunshin. It was also a technique that didn't show a great deal of Kimimaro's real power. For this kind of a fight, it was perfect.

"If you think you're so tough, you're going to face my most powerful technique," Kiba said smirking.

"I hope it's better than your last one..." Kimimaro muttered.

"You'll see for yourself," Kiba said proudly, "Gatsuga!"

Kiba and Akimaru seemed to spin rapidly like two drills and moved directly for Kimimaro. Kimimaro raised his arms.

"Karamatsu no Mai," Kimimaro said calmly.

From all over his body, bones shot up. The drills moved back, but attacked again from another angle. Kimimaro began to spin, the bones flashing sinisterly. There was a howl of pain, and one of the attackers fell back, bleeding and changing back into Akamaru. The other drill whirled around and attempted to catch Kimimaro from the back, only to meet another bone that dug into his shoulder.

Kimimaro stopped and calmly looked at Kiba, his eyes appraising him. Then the bone shot back into him, and Kiba fell to the ground in a heap.

"I avoided puncturing your lungs," Kimimaro said, "But there is no way that you could kill the man who killed your friend."

"What do you know?" Kiba hissed.

Kimimaro calmly put his foot on Kiba's head, "I know that right now I could kill you, and there's nothing you could do about it. If you were defeated by me, you couldn't possibly win against someone who was ANBU level or higher."

"I can still fight," Kiba growled.

"I see your partner means nothing to you then," Kimimaro said, his eyes on Akamaru, and extending a hand in the position of Teshi Sendan towards him.

The dog was bleeding badly. It struggled to get up, but it was unable to do so. When he noticed Kimimaro's eyes on him, Akamaru growled, but it was a weak, tired sound. There was no way that he was going to manage to escape Kimimaro's attack. Kiba's eye flickered back and forth between Kimimaro and Akamaru, as the debate took place in his mind. Finally he gave in.

"Alright, you win," he gasped, "Just don't hurt Akamaru."

"Inuzuka Kiba has forfeited the match," Hayate said calmly, "The winner is Yuuma."

All of Hakumei cheered loudly.

"Weakling," Yumi said calmly, "Letting his feelings for his dog get the better of him. He should have continued and bought a new dog."

Shino said nothing.

"So then he would have been beaten and his dog killed as well?" Sasuke asked, "Yuuma crushed him."

"Because he cared too much about his mutt, and your friend didn't have anything to tie him down," Yumi said calmly, "People are only at their strongest when they have nothing to limit them like a bomb. That is why ROOT is so effective in Konoha. I assume you have heard how they destroyed Iwa?"

Naruto had to disagree. The most dangerous that he had seen Kimimaro was the one time that he had thought that they were going to be killed. The same went for all of them. Alone they could be picked off, but together they were a force to be reckoned with. Hakumei usually worked as an entire unit, unlike other groups, who were usually divided. Yumi had a point that people who didn't have any connections to anything were dangerous, they were also weaker since an opponent could know for a fact that unless it benefited the team members, a ROOT team could be broken up and couldn't rely on each other.

Also, Kimimaro's mother, who ever she was, had named him well. He had completely dominated that match.

Kimimaro walked up the stairs as Kiba was taken away by some medic nins along with Akamaru.

* * *

Kiba didn't really understand what had happened. It had been like everything that he had done had been completely useless against that opponent. Where had he made a mistake? He had done everything the way that he should have, but it hadn't been enough. What was worse was that Akamaru was very badly hurt. Kiba felt even worse than if he had simply been defeated. He had caused his partner to be hurt as well.

That Yuuma guy had made it clear that if he had wanted to, he could have killed him and Akamaru.

Naruto would have laughed at him so hard he would have started hyperventilating then he would have said how he would have crushed Yuuma with his awesome skills if he had been matched up against him. Naruto always did have a huge head and not a whole lot of sense.

Kiba buried his face in his pillow. Yuuma had been right. He didn't have the power to defeat the people who had murdered Naruto. He couldn't even fight against a stupid Grass nin...

_Kiba..._

Kiba turned around to look at Akamaru. He had been bandaged up, but he was still tired and weak from the use of the soldier pill, which was very draining, and the loss of blood. He wagged his tail a little bit.

_You did really great you know. _

"He totally crushed us," Kiba sighed, "and we made ourselves look weak in front of Danzou-sama. How are we going to advance looking like that?"

_...I thought we did pretty good..._

Akamaru sounded a little upset, or maybe just hurt. Kiba couldn't tell, and that bothered him. Usually he was in tune with almost all of Akamaru's feelings.

"Hey, Akamaru," Kiba muttered, "I'm sorry...I actually considered letting that guy kill you so I could win...I...I don't deserve to be your partner."

_But you didn't let him. You forfeited instead of letting me die._

"Yeah...I guess I did," Kiba was sometimes amazed by Akamaru's loyalty, "Well, Yumi's right. I don't have the willingness to make sacrifices to be a true ninja...but...I guess I'll have to redefine what a ninja is along with you. After all, we're partners and if the traditional ninja can't have a partner, we've got to change that! We'll make our own nindo!

Akamaru wagged his tail in agreement.

"If there's something in your way of being the best, knock it down...we got beat because I didn't think enough about my partner...I've got to get stronger and build my partnership...you'd agree wouldn't you...Naruto?"

* * *

Kimimaro got some pats on the back from Hakumei as congratulations on a job well done. He looked rather pleased with himself as he smirked at the others. Shino and Yumi, along with Kakashi had moved back to where they had been before. Naruto noticed that Kakashi was leading them and Shino looked a little reluctant to go.

"You took too long," Neji told him.

"I wanted to enjoy myself while I trampled his ego." Kimimaro admitted.

"You're sadistic," Hinata sighed.

"Only mildly so," Kimimaro said, "I don't enjoy hurting people, just...messing with them a little bit. You have to admit that his face was funny when my ribs came out."

Naruto grinned and had to agree, but felt the eyes of Danzou on them. He and the other former Konoha runaways would have to be really careful if they didn't want to be caught...

"The next match will begin immediately," Hayate called out.

Once again, the computer began sorting through the names of the participants and Naruto and the others waited. Some of the Genin leaned forwards hopefully, while others held back and watched the screen with a sort of calm anticipation. The only one who didn't seem to be looking forwards to the announcing of the next match was the Sand girl, Matsuri. She just looked a little on the sick side.

Finally, the pinging sound rang again and two names appeared.

**Yamanaka Ino vs. Kankuro**

Ino looked over at Kankuro, who smirked at her, and bit her lip.

"That guy's just flat creepy looking," Naruto heard her whisper to her teammates, "I really would rather not fight him..."

"It's a pain, but that's the rules," Shikamaru grumbled, "at least I don't have to fight now..."

"So selfish," Ino whispered, "Sometimes I can't believe they put you on a team with me."

"It's alright," Chouji said, "We don't mind."

Ino glared over at Chouji and stormed off down the stairs.

Naruto knew for a fact that there was a very good reason that that team had been placed together. First of all, they were a tribute to their dads, who had been a pretty famous team, and now were drinking buddies and had probably timed it so that their wives had kids in the same year, and the other was that their families were all officially critical of Danzou. (Also, Naruto knew for a fact that all three heads were members of Kinen.) They weren't openly against him or anything, but they were the only critics that Danzou faced. It was natural that he would put the children together under a teacher that he knew was loyal.

Naruto wouldn't have kept them together though. It seemed the Danzou underestimated the amount of strength that people could get from one another. Or maybe he didn't care too much. It was very hard for Naruto to tell with Danzou. That guy gave off almost no real feelings. It was creepy.

Had Sai been like that?

"Well, this is a nice break up," Neji said, "Who do you think is going to win?"

"Ino," Sakura said in a dead tone.

"Really?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, I think I remember reading about that family," Sakura said thoughtfully, "She might look like nothing more than a slightly sleazy girl with a loud mouth, but if she knows her family's moves, she's pretty dangerous."

"Hm," Neji said thoughtfully, "This match might be more interesting than I thought."

"I hope so," Sai said, "I really don't like watching guys beat up helpless girls..."

"I never saw you jump in to save us," Sakura pointed out.

"That's because you're not helpless."

"Does he have a thing for weaker women?" Naruto hissed to Sasuke.

"Apparently, I'm not complaining though, for a while I was worried that he wasn't interested at all. I think sensei was just as worried. He'll be thrilled."

"Can we please change the subject..?" Haku asked.

"It's starting," Hinata leaned on the ledge.

"This match is between Yamanaka Ino of Konoha and Kankuro of Suna. As before there is no time limit and all weapons are permissible. Begin!"

Ino wasted no time. She dashed towards him, feinted, and tried to attack from the side. Kankuro matched her movements exactly, blocking her punches, but not making any moves of his own. Naruto watched for a while. This didn't seem right for Kankuro for some reason. He had struck Naruto as being more like him and wanting to get the whole fight over with as soon as possible. He seemed to be reading her movements and growing accustomed to them, but what was he waiting for? In a match of strength, he would easily win.

What was he waiting for?

Naruto watched, trying to remember what Konohamaru had said about what Kankuro did. He played with dolls...and Kankuro had called them his weapons...What was a weapon that could be thought of like a doll?

"Hey, Shinta," Naruto called Gaara, "isn't Suna famous for having ninjutsu that used puppets?"

Gaara nodded, "It's one of Suna's distinctive traits. Some of their best ninja were puppet users. I believe that there are a lot of laws about what you're allowed to do now though. I remember reading that someone thought that it would be a bright idea to use human bodies as puppets."

"That's disgusting," Haku remarked.

Kankuro seemed to have either had enough of being beaten up by a girl or had read her all that he wanted to. At any rate, he punched out, forced Ino back, and jumped towards her while she was still a little unsteady, grabbing her long ponytail in one hand

"You're not too bad at taijutsu," he said, "but this isn't going to be a taijutsu battle anymore. Let's use our real techniques."

Ino smirked.

"You're going to regret saying that!" she said, "but if that's what you want, and you asked so nicely, I guess a lady like me has no choice but to agree.

With one motion, Ino had cut off the chunk of hair that Kankuro was holding, and she spun around to face him as Kankuro let go of the hair in disgust.

"But now I am mad," Ino said crossly, "You made me cut my precious hair!"

"Girls who fight shouldn't have hair that long anyways," Kankuro shrugged, "Don't they teach you anything. Hair's a target cutie."

"Heh, it's also a weapon!" Ino shouted.

Kankuro's smirk changed into a look of surprised as he looked down as his feet, which seemed to be straining but unable to move. He tried a few times, but it seemed that nothing was working.

"What's this?!" he asked in shocked.

"That, my friend, is a technique I thought up," Ino said proudly, "There's no way you can escape from me now!"

"Hm, Miss Gorgeous is pretty good..." Sai said thoughtfully.

"Better than I thought that she would be," Neji admitted.

Ino placed her hands so that she was looking at Kankuro through a circle made from her thumb and middle and index fingers and said calmly but very softly, "Shintenshin no Jutsu,"

Ino crumbled to the ground in what looked like a faint.

"So her great technique is to faint on command?" Sasuke asked.

"I hope not," Kimimaro said rolling his eyes, "Who would come up with such a stupid technique?"

"You're not listening," Hinata reproved them.

Kankuro was completely still for a moment, and then started to laugh a little bit. Slowly, Ino got off of the ground clutching her head and moaning a little in pain. She looked up at Kankuro in a confused way and gasped a little. Slowly, the clay that covered Kankuro's head began to break apart to show a completely mechanical face and the strange wrapped up thing on his back came undone in order to reveal the real Kankuro.

"What..." Ino gasped out.

"This is my Kugutsu no Jutsu," Kankuro smirked, "You really had rotten luck getting matched up against the only guy that attack wouldn't work on. Tough luck. Do you surrender or do you want me to use Karasu?"

"I surrender," Ino grumbled, "I can't fight with this headache..."

"You heard the lady," Kankuro said to Hayate.

"Yamanaka Ino has surrendered. The winner is Kankuro!" Hayate said calmly.

"So she possessed people?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, and apparently, you can't possess an inanimate object..." Sakura said.

Naruto would keep that in mind, just in case he ever had to go up against one of the Yamanaka clan. So, that was what Konohamaru meant. Naruto had thought so, but he just hadn't been completely sure up until now. Actually, Naruto didn't think that it looked much like a doll, and he was sure that it didn't just look nasty.

Gaara looked a little troubled, but Naruto didn't ask him if there was anything the matter. It might have something to do with the fact that Kankuro was his brother or something. He would ask later, if he had the chance.

So, Konoha had lost twice. Naruto was feeling a little more calm now that things were showing themselves that he had nothing much to worry about. The computer began its shuffle through names again, and Naruto watched boredly. He wasn't confident that they wouldn't face any trouble, but thing were looking much easier. There was a ping, and Naruto looked up to see the two names, and felt a rush of worry clench him stomach.

**Uchiha Yumi vs. Emi**

* * *

Anko tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Iruka. He had better be grateful for all the time that she had wasted watching the stupid Exam just so that he could see if his little favorite would be alright.

But that wasn't the reason that she was there.

From what she had seen of him in that little scuffle with the Sound team, he could take care of himself, and when he couldn't, he traveled in a pack to eliminate anything bad that might happen. It was clever, but somewhat disturbing. It had been a long time since she had seen kids that powerful.

Anko was actually against the Academy. It, in her view, actually made the students weaker because those who were naturally better had to slow down for those who were naturally worse. She knew that her thoughts were cruel when it came to the actual children, since five year olds shouldn't be fighting wars anyways, the Uchiha had proven that with Itachi, but as war continued, Anko wondered if at a certain age, those with talent should have been trained differently.

Iruka would disagree. For all that he now seemed to have split personalities, Iruka was firm on the notion that children should be allowed to have a childhood. Perhaps it was Anko's own lack of one that made her so cold. She had apprenticed to Orochimaru at a very young age, and that had changed a lot about her.

The thought of that monster made her lip curl. She had thought so highly of him once. She would have been willing to do anything for him. Once, he had had that ability. Orochimaru had been able to inspire loyalty and trust in others. When he had started to ignore her training slightly and act strangely, Anko had written it off. When he had placed the cursed seal on her, Anko's first thoughts were to justify him, to find any reason why he had changed so quickly and so dramatically. Anko hadn't wanted to believe that someone she had liked had used her like that, and she would have taken any excuse to believe that either it wasn't him or it wasn't his fault. Finally, the truth had been too obvious to ignore: Orochimaru had hid his true personality from everyone, and when it was advantageous to him, he had showed it.

What was amusing was that it wasn't even that advantageous to him. Maybe he had just gotten bored or something...

There were soft footsteps and Anko turned around to greet Iruka.

"You're late," she said, crossing her arms, "What are you taking lessons from Kakashi? Did you get lost on the road of life?"

She stopped when she realized that this was Iruka's annoying little friend Mizuki, a white haired, smooth talking ninja who Anko trusted as much as the average poisonous spider. She just got a really strange vibe off of him, and Anko had learned to trust the vibes that she got off of people.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mitarashi-san," Mizuki said, "Were you waiting for Iruka?"

"No, I just like standing around here looking bored," Anko said.

Mizuki laughed in a nervous kind of way and scratched the back of his head.

"You're a funny person, Anko-chan,"

What was it about this guy that got on her nerves? He had this irritating way of constantly being nice and charming, and it set her teeth on edge. Seriously, what guy was as even tempered as this one? Even Iruka could get angry, and his calmness and sweetness generally made her feel a little more normal than usual. This one just made her feel ready to kill someone, preferably, him.

"Get lost, Mizuki," Anko said, "What are you doing in Iruka's office anyways?"

"I was looking for some files on a few students that I think he had," Mizuki told her, completely ignoring her rudeness, "I want to know just how many rules Konohamaru-kun had broken so I can give a good report to Asuma."

Oh, yeah, like he was interested in what that little brat did. Anko knew for a fact that Mizuki had nothing to do with the troublemakers. Or maybe it was just because Konohamaru happened to be the Hokage's grandson.

...Who would name their kid 'Konohamaru' anyways... No wonder he was happily on the path to being a delinquent. Anko had heard that Hyuuga Hanabi had beaten the snot out of the kid for stalking her and showing her some horror that she refused to speak of...

"Yeah, well, do it some other time," Anko, said, suddenly struck by inspiration, "I have...business...with Iruka-kun."

She winked at the end of that sentence.

Anko knew perfectly well that most people assumed that she was fast. They also assumed that she didn't have a shirt on underneath her armor. Idiots. Armor was only so good. The more clothes the better. Anko had to admit, she didn't mind messing with people's dirty minds or presenting what looked like an easy target. In this case, it was going to come in handy. Mizuki would come to the dirtiest assumption his little mind could see, and he would go crawling back to whatever hole he had crawled out of with some R-rated fantasies to tell everyone. Then her trips to Iruka's office would seem perfectly normal.

She was such a genius.

Mizuki's face went red, and he made some stuttered excuses and left quickly. Aw, he was shy. Anko made a mental note of that. Could he really be this pathetic? No. Therefore he was suspicious.

"Anko-chan," Iruka asked walking in through the office, "is there a reason why Mizuki was in here?"

"He said he was looking for files on Konohamaru for some reason," Anko smirked, "I got rid of him. Now it's just the two of us."

Anko edged a little closer.

"Would you please not do that?" Iruka asked, "It's rather disturbing."

"Aw, but it was so fun," Anko grinned, "Did you know your friend was a closet pervert? Like Glasses-kun?"

"You get too much pleasure out of doing that," Iruka sighed, "What's more ironic, is that you've never even dated let alone-"

Anko hit him very lightly.

"Who cares, of course, if you're interested...?"

"When did we go from your trying to feed me to your snake to this?"

"I don't know, I guess sometime of working together made me realize that you really weren't a pervert." Anko grinned, "At any rate, I'm here for a reason. Jiraiya-sama gave me this to show to Kinen individually."

Anko took out a message capsule that was used for hawks and such, and she opened both the bottom and top flaps, coming up with two messages. The first was to Jiraiya, but the second was what had caught Anko's attention the most.

_Ero-sennin, _

_Yes, that does happen to be your code name with us. Deal with it or harass Shippuu. I really don't care which._

_Anyways, I have noticed that in the Exams there was a group who claimed to be from Kusa like us; however, they showed no sign of being confused by our presence and made a claim similar to ours as a reason why that did not know us. Enclosed is a reply to an inquiry that I sent to Kusa, giving them a description of the Genin and asking if they are what they claim._

_Please know that I wrote this with the original inquiry and, since I have no means of receiving the letter in private, used one of your birds. I'm sure you're annoyed, but I'm also sure you'll live with it if this information tells you what I think it will._

_Haka._

"That Haka kid is pretty interesting," Anko said with a smirk at Iruka, "Now, look at what he dug up."

Iruka picked up the other letter and read through it.

"If this is true..."

"And it is," Anko supplied.

"Then we have a team running around from some random place that we don't know about," Iruka said softly, "No one from Kusa matches those descriptions, but that names are the same as the Genin who went missing with their sensei. It looks like they killed those Genin and stole the identification papers. But why?"

"I think we should be informing the others right about now," Anko said calmly.

"You're right,"

* * *

A moment later, the office was abandoned.

* * *

**Omake:** Sasuke meets Lee

It was the day before the Exams, and Sasuke was wandering around Konoha with Sakura, trying to get familiar with the layout and ignore the feeling that he was being followed. As he turned a corner, he suddenly took a step backwards as a greenish blur streaked past him.

"Halt, oh unyouthful evildoer!" a voice yelled.

"Oh no," Sakura sighed, "not this guy again..."

"Hn?" Sasuke asked as the green thing streaked towards him again, obviously trying to attack.

"Um, Lee-san," Sakura said, "What are you doing?"

"Defending you, oh beautiful blossom of youth, from the clutches of this evil person who has been following you. Never fear, I will defend you as Konoha's Beautiful Blue Beast!"

Lee stopped and posed in his entire bowl cut glory, "You are not worthy of being my rival, evildoer, I will slay you as you stand!"

It was unfortunate that Lee happened to be standing right above a private home where the woman of the house was emptying out her bucket of dirty water out the window. Lee was suddenly soaked as he stood, and was blinking in a confused sort of way.

"Gomenasai!" the woman called, shutting the window.

Lee continued blinking.

"Just don't look at him," Sasuke whispered to Sakura, "If you ignore that kind, they won't go away, but they might stop stalking you."

Sakura and Sasuke edged away from Lee while his mind rebooted itself. When Lee was aware of the situation again, he was standing drenched in front of a large curious crowd of onlookers.

"Well, get the show started," an irritated man said, "We haven't got all day. If you want to get ahead in street performing you have to get over stage fright."

* * *

_Yes, I was a little later than I wanted, but we're painting the house, so things are moving a little slow. I had a lot of fight scenes didn't I? This should last for about two to three more chapters. _

_Additional Notes:_

_Kimimaro: His name means "One who is without equal." This is probably some kind of reference to the fact that he's pretty much unbeatable at taijutsu. I know that this battle is a little one sided, but Kiba is really at Genin level and Kimimaro, even limiting himself, is at least at strong Chuunin level._

_Kiba: Yes, I gave him something of a reason for his personality problem. Being that his personality is very much like a dog's I thought that since he had been friends with Naruto, the fact that Naruto was 'killed' would have hit him harder than Shikamaru or Chouji. A part of Kiba's pack had died in a way. Also, in the Chuunin Exams, I never really felt that Kiba took Naruto very seriously until the end. Hense, my Kiba's saying that even if Naruto was weak, he still liked him._

_Ino: I'm going to be very frank: I don't really like her. I respect her power and I think her techniques are interesting, but as a character I think she is too unfocused and boy crazy to be a strong character. She mostly is just Sakura's rival for Sasuke's affections. Also, there are two major flaws in her power: she needs someone to protect her, and she doesn't have a strong offensive attack. Also...was it just me, or did she make almost no improvement in Shippuuden? At any rate, I'm going to do my best to have her grow a little bit and become more useful, but don't expect too much out of me..._

_Strength: I'm sorry, girls, but men are physically stronger unless it's Sakura. That's always one of the things with some books that annoy me. In a physical fight, a woman cannot match a man on pure strength if they have received the same amount of training with the same weapon. (If she's been training and he hasn't, that's a completely different story.) I tried it in kendo once. I shoved him with everything I had, and he moved about three inches. He returned the favor and I found myself shoved back about three to four feet. That's just the way Mother Nature built us. Since the advent of the gun, it doesn't really matter though..._

_Translations_

_Shikyaku no Jutsu – Four Legs Technique: This technique grants accelerated fighting instinct. By stretching chakra around one's entire body and moving on all fours, one obtains super-high speed, like that of a wild animal. Their nails grow to claw-like length and and they grow noticeably stronger. The form is best suited for hit-and-run tactics. _

_Jujin Bunshin - Beast Human Clone: A modified version of a henge. This jutsu allows a user to transform their animal companion into a perfect copy of themselves. When combined with the Shikyaku no Jutsu the user and the animal become virtually impossible to tell apart, since both act equally animalistic. Like any transformation, the jutsu can be broken by identifying and attacking the animal, thus dispelling the transformation. _

_Gatsuga - Double Piercing Fang: The user and his partner spin at a ferocious speed and deliver many powerful beast-like attacks when contact is made with the target. The force of this attack is strong enough to drill through stone. This attack can be done alone although it is less effective. _

_Karamatsu no Mai – Dance of the Larch: Kimimaro uses this jutsu to create a mass of razor-sharp bone spikes all over his body. These spines appear to be branches off his pre-existing skeletal structure rather than completely new bones. Kimimaro is even able to grow these bones at an extremely rapid rate so they can stab an opponent even as they are growing. He can even use them to block or trap an opponent's strikes. In addition to being an unwelcome surprise for opponents, it makes him basically untouchable at close range. If an opponent would start to get close to him, he would start to spin rapidly slashing the foe in multiple areas of their body. _

_Shintenshin no Jutsu - Mind Body Switch Technique: This technique allows the user to enter the mind of another person or even an animal. The user transfers their consciousness to the opponent, giving them complete control of the body for a short period of time. Their original body is left defenseless while this jutsu is active, leaving it susceptible to attack until they return. The mind transfer is slow-moving, moves in a straight direction, and takes some time to return to the user's body if it misses. Because of these reasons it should only be used on immobilized targets. Similarly, if the opponent's will is strong enough, they can force the user from their body._

_Kugutsu no Jutsu – Puppet Technique: This jutsu uses Chakra strings to control a puppet, or any inanimate object. It can also be used to control people like a puppet. _

_Review!_


	21. Part 2: Metal

_Author's Corner: Here's the moment that many of you have been waiting for. The Yumi vs. Sakura fight as well as a couple others. I hope that you're ready to loath Yumi, because I did just writing this. She's probably the first original character that I've ever made for the sheer purpose of hating. She's everything I ever hated in a Naruto OC and then some. Hate her to your heart's content, but you must admit, she is perfect to have as an antagonist from Konoha. _

_After all, would you rather have an evil Lee?_

_At any rate, there should be one (at most two) more preliminary chapters after this one. I forget how long the Chuunin Exams last. If you look at it, the really took up most of part 1 in the manga. And mine has more going on. Well, this chapter should clear up a little on Yumi and maybe some other people. It's funny. No one has guessed just who Yumi is..._

_More on the anime: FINALLY! Took you bleeding long enough...NO MORE FILLER! Suigestu is probably the best member of Team Hebi/Taka. I really want to find out more about about he's up to... I hate Karin._

_Is anyone other then me getting annoyed by this onepieceofbleach group?_

_On the manga: Genius. Art. I swear, I've never seen a Western story with so many lovely plot twists, hidden agenda's and possible outcomes. I'm thrilled! And more on Sai. Seriously, I like him more and more, and Danzou...well, I kind of suspected for a while, but I think I liked my Madartobito idea better... Alwell._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns no part of Naruto. If she did, you would be paying for this story and writing fanfiction about it._

_Thanks to Ibby-kun for Betaing!_

_The list strikes back!_

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**The devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape.**_

_**-Unknown  
**_

* * *

Naruto didn't know why, but he felt a sinking feeling as he looked at the computer. He looked over at Sakura. She was looking over at Yumi with a thoughtful expression. She was twirling one piece of hair in her finger, and seemed deep into whatever thoughts were going through her mind.

"Wish me luck," Sakura said with a grin.

"Good luck," Naruto said, "Be careful."

"I'm always careful," Sakura sniffed but was grinning, "That's why I'm so good."

"Seriously, Emi," Sasuke grumbled.

"Ah, are you guys worried about me," Sakura smiled.

"I don't trust her," Sasuke growled, "Finish her from the start."

Sakura didn't say anything to that, but really, she didn't have to. Sakura knew that, but there was a problem. All of Sakura real attacks had Tsunade's fingerprints all over them. If she were to use them with Danzou looking right at them, he would get suspicious. That and her pink hair would give her away. She had to fight with a handicap that Yumi didn't have.

Yumi and Sakura both walked down to the area and stood facing one another with unreadable expressions.

"This match is between Uchiha Yumi of Konoha and Emi of Kusa. As in other matches there is no time limit. You may begin," Hayate said calmly.

Both girls attacked at the same time, throwing kunai and deflecting them. Sakura dashed forwards, a punch aimed, but Yumi jumped back, throwing two more kunai which were deflected. It looked like Yumi wasn't going to let Sakura get anywhere near her.

"If you're not going to use a real attack then I will," Yumi said calmly, her hands forming a pattern that was extremely familiar to her.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu," she said calmly, blowing out an enormous ball of flame that sped towards Sakura. It was only Sakura's long training with Sasuke that allowed her to dodge it in time and throw a barrage of kunai all of them with bags attached to them so that what looked like paper and cherry blossoms were floating in the air.

"Pathetic," Yumi mumbled, dodging away and slicing the bags to pieces with a pair of kunai, "Do you think you can defeat me with such a basic technique? Gunpowder packet filled bags with flower blossoms to hide the smell and an exploding tag couldn't possibly work. Did you're village teach you anything?"

"Who said anything about gunpowder?" Sakura asked, tilting her head, "Look around you."

For the first time, Yumi seemed to notice that the little pieces of paper were really tiny exploding tags that Sakura had placed in the bag floating along with the petals. Because they were smaller than the usual type, Yumi must not have recognized them. Yumi's eyes widened fractionally, and she began to create a pattern of seals.

"Sakura Fubuki no Jutsu!" Sakura called, throwing a kunai with an exploding tag attached to it towards Yumi.

The explosion was earsplitting. Even Sakura was knocked backwards in the blast. She regained her footing and stood braced, but there was a smirk on her face. That smirk turned to a look of surprise when she saw the metal dome where Yumi had once been, it dissolved, and Yumi stood, her hands in a seal, and expressionless.

"Ki**nzoku** Tate no Jutsu," Yumi said calmly, "a technique using both earth and fire elements to create a shield. It is unfortunate that it can only last for one attack. You've actually made me use something real. I must admit, I'm mildly impressed."

Sakura replied with something that she had learned from Tsunade while she was suffering from a saki induced headache and Jiraiya had been harassing her.

"You know, I like her," Kiyoko, who was standing close enough for Naruto to hear, said thoughtfully, "But I don't think she's going to win...too bad."

Sakura made a series of hand seals.

"G**enwaku** Sakura no Jutsu!" Sakura said, sounding angry.

No wonder, Naruto thought, these attacks were ones she hadn't used in years. When Sakura was younger she had made a bunch of techniques that had something to do with cherry blossoms, but most of them were weak or just silly looking. Sakura had to rely on those right now, when they weren't really that much help.

"Emi shouldn't have done that," Sai said.

"Why?" Gaara asked.

"Didn't you see her fight with that group of missing nin?" Sai asked, "One of them trapped her and her team in a genjutsu that should couldn't break, but she didn't seem too hindered by the limited visibility that the situation created."

"This girl has a thing with cherry blossoms doesn't she?" Ren asked, "The weakest female character usually uses those kinds of techniques against the boss."

Sasuke looked like he wanted to strangle him.

The field changed completely, even the onlookers, who usually weren't able to see a genjutsu, could see it. Yumi was surrounded by what looked like hundreds of falling cherry blossoms, making it almost impossible to actually see anything. Sakura dashed forwards into the illusion, her fist raised, but Yumi jumped back again, seemingly able to navigate the genjutsu.

"If she could only get one punch in..." Hinata mumbled.

"I know," Naruto growled, "and so does Yumi. She's making sure that Emi can't get anywhere near her."

"But she's a short range type too isn't she?" Haku asked, "Wouldn't that make it impossible for her to attack as well?"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Sai said, watching the whole fight, "Just because she can fight short range doesn't mean she's a short range fighter. Look at me."

"Also," Kimimaro added, "We haven't seen her use anything other then the shield. It looks to me like she's purposely wearing Emi down."

Sakura continued attacking, and Yumi continued to back up until she seemed satisfied with something. She dropped a smoke bomb, which covered the entire arena. When the smoke cleared Yumi was a good distance from Sakura, holding a metal tipped whip in her hand.

"It would have been better for you to have surrendered," Yumi said calmly, "Let's begin."

Yumi flicked her arm and the whip shot out towards Sakura. She dodged, jumping to the left with a bit of a smirk.

"You have to be faster then that," she yelled.

Sakura's smirk turned to shock when the whip changed direction and homed in on her, gashing her leg. Sakura landed back in a crouch, holding one leg. It was bleeding badly.

"What?" Sakura hissed.

"Kinzoku Shihai no Jutsu," Yumi said, smirking, "It lets me control where my whip goes. Shall we continue?"

She flicked her wrist again, and Sakura started to jump back away from it. The problem was that with the wound in her foot, Sakura wasn't as fast as she had been, and Naruto noticed the whip's tip was actually stretching. Sakura seemed to notice it as well, since she was starting to try to move faster.

"If that's a Genin, I'll take a nap right now," Gaara muttered.

Yumi flicked her wrist one final time, and the whip was aimed straight for Sakura, or rather, her neck. Sakura didn't have time to dodge, and she was already in midair. She only had time to raise one hand to the level of her eyes as the whip wrapped itself around her neck and her wrist. The fact that Sakura had her wrist there, allowed her to breathe. It was bleeding, but there was a small smile on her lips.

"Somewhat impressive," Yumi said softly, "So you managed to keep yourself from being killed."

She tighted the rope, and there was a sick crack as Sakura's wrist broke. Sakura didn't scream, but her gritted her teeth in pain and closed her eyes.

"Now, now," Yumi took a step forwards, "You really should scream. Bow down and beg for mercy, and you might find me to be generous. If not, I can continue this for hours."

The whip tightened again for emphasis, and Sakura bit down hard on her lip until blood flowed. She glared at Yumi.

"Do it," she snarled.

"Such bravery is foolish. I gave you a chance to preserve your life that did not endanger your loyalty to your village. Only a fool wouldn't take it." She continued tightening the whip, "You should have forfeited when you knew that you were matched against the elite. Did you honestly believe that some low born child who has no clan to call her own would be a match for a child of the greatest of all bloodlines? I did not even need to activate the Sharingan to fight you. Weak."

Sasuke was starting to shake with rage.

"I'll kill you slowly, girl," Yumi tighten the whip again and a small groan escaped Sakura.

"This match is over," Hayate said, finally deciding to get involved, "Emi can no longer continue this fight. The winner is Uchiha Yumi."

Yumi whirled on him, and for the first time, Naruto saw a true emotion on her face: rage.

"Stay out of this you pathetic excuse for a ninja," she snarled.

Before she could continue her torture, a kunai whizzed past Yumi's face, barely missing.

"Darn, I missed," Sasuke said calmly, he had jumped into the arena and was holding two other kunai, "You heard him, Uchiha. The match is over. If you don't leave, I'll make you."

For a moment, Sasuke and Yumi stared at one another, and Naruto got the feeling that Sasuke was trying hard not to activate the Sharingan. Naruto could almost feel the tension between them. In the mean time, medics had taken advantage of the situation and were releasing the semi-conscious girl from the whip that was digging into her wrist and neck and laying her on a stretcher.

Kimimaro jumped down and looked back up at the others.

"I'm going with her," he said, "Give me the blow by blow later."

Naruto nodded and looked over at Sasuke and Yumi. They hadn't said anything yet, and they seemed to be unaware of anything else. Finally Sasuke moved, taking out one kunai, he cut his hand. Holding out the hand, he touched some of the blood with his finger, and wrote something on his arm.

"Uchiha Yumi," Sasuke said calmly, "I swear by this blood that I will have my revenge for her. Every drop of blood that your spilled will be repaid ten times over. I denounce you, Uchiha Yumi, you and your entire family as hypocrites and murderers. From this day forth, I and my children will never eat with you and yours. I arm myself against you. "

"I denounce you, Masaru," Yumi replied, "as a fool. From this time forth, I and my children will never eat with you and yours. I and my clan see you as our enemy."

For a moment longer, they stared at one another, and then the computer began to work again. There was the now familiar pinging sound, and Naruto looked up to see the two names on the screen.

**Masaru vs. Abumi Zaku **

Sasuke smirked a little as Yumi walked away. She ignored the comments of Shino. (I believe that you went too far) and settled down to watch. Naruto could tell that from the way that Sasuke was tensed, he was mad. In fact, Zaku might not live to tell the tale of what happened when you had to fight against Sasuke when he was in Avenger Mode.

Sasuke had only once gone into this frame of mind, and Naruto had been slightly intimidated by it. He was just glad that it hadn't been directed at him. It had been when they were younger and a thief had nearly killed Neji. Sasuke had all but gone berserk. Naruto basically considered it a word to the wise not to get him into that frame of mind. Sasuke seemed willing to do anything to achieve that revenge.

Hopefully, Sasuke wouldn't activate the Sharingan right there with Danzou staring at him to see what he would do when he was mad.

Sasuke and Zaku faced one another, and Hayate began his annoucement.

"This battle is between Masaru of Kusa and Abumi Zaku of Oto. All previous rules apply," Hayate seemed to be tired of giving the same rules time after time, "You may begin."

Zaku looked like he was about to attack, but before he had even moved, Sasuke was right behind him. Sasuke had grabbed both of his arms before Zaku could react and had pulled them towards him, placing one foot on his back.

"You seem pretty proud of your arms," Sasuke remarked, "You remind me a lot of someone, so I'll make you a deal. If you surrender now, I'll walk away. If you don't, I swear I'll take your arms from their sockets, or maybe I'll just snap your back."

Sasuke pulled a little for emphasis, and Zaku groaned a little. He bit his lip and looked backwards slightly, one looking into Sasuke's eyes told him that he was dead serious. They were empty and dead. The kind of eyes that a shark had before it killed.

"A-alright!" Zaku snarled, "I give."

Hayate seemed to be completely unsurprised by Sasuke's sudden show of power.

"Abumi Zaku has surrendered, the victor is Masaru," he said, calmly.

Sasuke walked up to where Hakumei stood and glared at all of them. Naruto sighed a just shook his head. While Sasuke should have held back, Naruto couldn't really blame him. Also, Sasuke hadn't used any techniques, he had just forced Zaku to surrender using speed and intimidation. Danzou wasn't looking too happy either...then again...that was his normal face...

"Good job, Masaru," Naruto sighed.

"An impressive victory," Shino, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere agreed, "Your skills are definitely above average."

Sasuke nodded to him, but didn't say anything.

Why was it that everything that Shino said could have two meanings?

* * *

Kimimaro sat down in a chair next to Sakura. He knew that Sasuke wouldn't turn up, even if he won quickly. He would be too upset, and he would think that it was saying something it wasn't. As if they hadn't known that Sasuke was sometimes ridiculously protective of Sakura sometimes. He tired to act cool, but no one was much fooled. Except maybe Sakura. Which made the whole thing even stupider.

"Hey, Yuuma!" Kiba called from his bed.

"Aren't you supposed to be calling me 'Yuuma-sama'?" Kimimaro asked, a little amusement in his eyes.

"Eh, what?" Kiba asked, then he remembered, "Oh, crud..."

Kimimaro smirked a little, but looked back at Sakura and the smirk died. She didn't look good. Sakura might have avoided being killed, but Yumi had broken her wrist and her neck was bleeding badly. There was even a little bit of bone peaking out of Sakura's wrist. Kimimaro looked at it in a dull kind of way, and remembered how he had used the skeleton of Kiyoko to help him to cheat.

Slowly, he touched Sakura's wrist and the bone, willing it to go back into it's proper position. At first, nothing seemed to be happening, only that Kimimaro was starting to feel tired. Then he began to notice that the bone was starting to recede into Sakura's body. While Kimimaro couldn't fix the break, he could at least align the bones so they they would heal properly. When the bone had completely receded, Kimimaro leaned back.

"That...was actually kind of cool," Kiba said, he had been leaning over, watching, "Is that a part of your kekkei genkai?"

"Apparently," Kimimaro said with a slight sigh.

"What, you don't know?" Kiba scoffed.

"Kiba, let me ask you a question," Kimimaro said calmly, "If your clan had been wiped out when you were nine, and you didn't have a single item to teach you how to use your abilities, would you know the full extent of your capacity?"

"Oh...sorry...sometimes I guess I don't think before I speak..." Kiba looked a little embarrassed, "I guess I've acted like a bit of a jerk to you and your friends."

"You were acting?"

For a second, Kiba looked angry, but he seemed to calm down.

"I...guess I kind of deserved that...anyways, is your friend, I think it's Emi, going to be ok?" Kiba asked.

Kimimaro looked at Sakura's form, "She'll be fine," he said at last, "She's been through worse. She just wasn't ready for this I guess."

"Yeah, it looks like she went up against Yumi. Man, that chick is weird," Kiba leaned forwards conspiratorially, "I think she's really an alien."

Kimimaro just stared at him.

"No, really! She just popped up out of nowhere I swear...maybe she's a secret experiment of the Uchiha clan..."

Kiba rolled over, muttering to himself about the Uchiha and experiments and getting under her skin, and Kimimaro went back to staring absently at Sakura.

One eye opened and Sakura smirked a little at him.

Kimimaro blinked.

Sakura opened both eyes and winked. She raised the one hand that was working and made a single seal.

"I can't keep this up long, but no one should be able to hear us," Sakura said with a bit of a grin, "I shouldn't be conscious after all. No real Genin would be. There's something that Yumi using on that thing's tip, a drug of some kind, it makes the thing it touches not react as fast as it should. Remember to tell the others that."

"I will," Kimimaro promised.

"So, how bad did it look?" Sakura asked, wincing a little.

"Bad enough," was all Kimimaro said.

Sakura sighed, "I couldn't break out without using sensei's technique. Then we would have been caught..."

"It's alright. Some one else will just take your place in winning," Kimimaro told her.

"It's not alright," Sakura grumbled, "I hate being weak. You know that. Now that stupid little Uchiha will be prancing around bragging about how I'm inferior. I can't allow that to happen again."

"It's alright, your style of fighting was weak against hers," Kimimaro tried to calm her down.

"Then I need to learn a new technique. Something that will allow me to fight in any range that I get caught in," Sakura said fiercely, "I refuse to be weak, and I refuse to lose again."

By this time, she was coughing again and the genjutsu had all but broken.

"So what happened after I passed out?" Sakura asked.

"Masaru swore his revenge and proclaimed a blood feud," Kimimaro sighed.

"That's going to be...complicated..." Sakura said after a moment.

"I'm sure he'll be in here to explain once he's done murdering the person he went up against," Kimimaro smirked.

The genjutsu faded and Sakura leaned back and once again pretended to be asleep. Kimimaro looked away, thinking about what Sakura had said. He smiled a little bit. It looked like one good thing had come out of this mission at least.

Kimimaro sensed someone come in and looked up for the medic nin. He felt himself relax a little as Tsunade herself appeared. She gave no sign that she knew him, and was accompanied by two medics.

"We are truly honored that you've come of take care of the wounded, Tsunade-hime," one was saying, "If we had known you were coming, there would have been many more medics here."

"That's why I didn't tell you," Tsunade said looking irritable, "I don't like to work when there are too many people around staring, and trying to get hints."

The other medics looked a little uncomfortable.

"Where's this girl who was so badly wounded?" Tsunade asked.

"...She's here," one of the said, regaining his senses, "We were worried that we might preform the procedure wrong on account of the fact that her bone was so badly displaced."

Tsunade walked over to Sakura, ignoring Kimimaro the same why she would ignore an empty chair. She calmly examined Sakura, checking her wrist carefully.

"I see nothing wrong with the bone alignment," she said, ignoring the sputtered protests of the medics, "See for yourselves, it is perfectly fine, other than the fact that it's been broken."

"That's impossible," one of the women said, "We saw the bone poking out of her arm!"

"It was him!" Kiba piped up, "His kekkei genkai does something with bones, and he made the bone that was sticking out of her arm go back in!"

Kimimaro closed his eyes briefly, wishing that Kiba had kept his mouth shut, while he didn't mind training, once someone's powers had a medical property, Tsunade would usually go overboard.

Tsunade examined him carefully, her eyes given no sign that she had ever seen him before in her life.

"That's an interesting gift," she remarked, "I'd like to see just how much you can do. It's too bad that you're from another village. I'm sure the medics there consider you a great asset."

She didn't wait for Kimimaro to answer, but turned back to Sakura. There was a hidden meaning in those words that Kimimaro understood perfectly well: he would be training how to use that power for a very long time. Well, it might come in handy later, he reasoned, maybe he could figure out how to make his opponents freeze or stumble, but Tsunade was going to be working him...well, to the bone, for a while until he could do it to her satisfaction.

* * *

Naruto watched the computer with a bored look on his face, but his mind was really racing. Sakura wasn't supposed to lose. That would have been Hinata. They had drawn straws to see which three of the nine were going to lose or forfeit. It would be best to have someone outside of what ever building that the Exam was in, and Sakura was supposed the be the one who gave the signal in her battle by using a certain jutsu. This was going to change things slightly. Someone else would have to surrender and someone else would have to win. Naruto hated last minute changes like this.

Hopefully nothing really annoying would come from this.

Finally there was a ping and two names appeared on the screen.

**Hideaki vs. Temari**

Sai blinked and looked over at Temari thoughtfully. Naruto knew that he was weighing the odds of his being able to fight without using his scrolls or any genjutsu that was too advanced for a Genin to use. Sai was a surprisingly smart ninja for all his lack of tact. He was weighing his odds out very carefully, and making some kind of decision.

Sai had agreed to lose. For one thing, his style of fighting was too unique not to be remembered. For another thing, he was best at surveillance and sudden ambushes not at head on attacks, and Sai always played towards his strengths.

Finally he seemed to make a decision and raised one hand.

"I forfeit," He said calmly.

"What?!" Temari said angrily, "We haven't even begun!"

"I can see from that weapon, which is not a club, that you are a long range fighter. To fight you would be more embarrassing then to forfeit, so I'll choose the less painful choice."

"Coward," Temari growled.

"Kyapi-kyapi," Sai smiled.

"Impo," Temari shot back.

"Chikusho," Sai continued, still smiling.

"As Hideaki has forfieted, the match goes to Temari," Hayate said, not paying anymore attention, and breaking Temari's concentration.

"Just you wait, gaki," Tamari growled, "I'm going to tear off your limbs and use them to beat you to death."

Sai just smiled.

"Did you know that when you do that when you're smiling, it makes it ten times more offensive?" Gaara asked him.

"Yes, that's why I do it," Sai smiled, "You see, when you're opponent is that angry, they can no longer think straight, which makes them a perfect target. An enraged opponent is about much more likely to make a stupid mistake that will leave them open to my attack."

"And you say that Ryou is a closet evil mastermind," Hinata shook her head.

"I'm not a closet one. I'm out in the open," Sai said happily.

"Well, you know have a girl out for your blood, congratulations," Gaara sighed.

"Thanks!"

Naruto looked over at the computer again, this time, the board had a set of names that Naruto had to admit looked rather interesting.

**Akimichi Choji vs. Tsuchi Kin**

Naruto looked over at the two. Choji was eating a chip and seemed completely uninterested in the fact that his name had just been called up, and Kin was glaring over at him, sizing him up.

"Oh, great, I'm with the chip-o-holic," she said, rolling her eyes, "As long as he doesn't sit on me, I'll be fine."

Naruto hit his head on his palm.

"I can't watch," he moaned.

Naruto remembered the last time that someone had insulted Choji's weight. The poor guy had been squashed by the Akimichi family technique. It was only because the others dragged him away that he didn't break anything. Choji was big boned, or husky, or plump. Anyone who said anything else would suffer the consequences of their folly. Usually in a very painful way.

Choji hadn't seemed to have heard her, or maybe he wasn't as sensitive anymore. At any rate, both walked down the stairs and faced off in the arena. He smiled at Kin, who glared at him darkly, muttering something that Naruto couldn't hear. Choji just shrugged and ate another chip.

"This match is between Akimichi Choji of Konoha and Tsuchi Kin of Oto. All rules of the previous battles apply, and Akimichi-kun, food is not allowed in the arena." Hayate said. He really must have been getting bored with saying the same things...

Choji looked at his chips and sighed a little, handing them to Hayate without saying anything. He didn't even ask him not to eat them. Apparently, he wasn't that interested.

"Begin," Hayate said.

Kin threw three senbon, all of them narrowly missing Choji and landing on the wall behind him. Choji moved a little away from the senbon.

"Whew, it's a good thing I stayed still," he remarked.

"Fatty, if I wanted to hit you, it wouldn't be that hard..." Kin grumbled.

There was complete and utter silence as Choji digested this statement. Finally it seemed that his mind had caught up with him.

"Who are you calling fat!" Choji yelled, "I'm big-boned! Yay for big-boned people!"

"A dinosaur is big-boned, Chunky," Kin sneered, "You just have a blubber problem."

"Doomed," Shikamaru said softly.

"And I didn't even have to say anything..." Ino shook her head.

"_Nikudan Sensha_!" Choji yelled at the top of his lungs. His entire body suddenly expanded into what seemed to be a large ball with arms, legs and a head that all seemed to be engulfed in fat. Naruto truthfully couldn't think of a more aproprate technique for him to use.

Kin's eyes widened breifly as she realized that she had made something of a mistake in mocking this guy's weight. Had she just fought him, she would have won much easier. Now, she was faced with a rather large problem. That was rolling towards her rather quickly.

"Suzu Senbon no Genkaku," Kin said, quickly making the seals.

The bells on the senbon began to ring, tinkling innocently. The only thing that was strange was how Choji seemed to suddenly veer off course to the right of Kin, who smirked. Naruto assumed that since she was a Sound nin, the bells were messing with Choji's mind. It was clever, he had to admit, but against someone like Kiba, it would have been useless.

Kin jumped away and threw a barrage of kunai towards Choji, but because that he was spinning so much, the kunai that did hit didn't seem to do as much damage as they should have. Kin swore and jumped away from the rolling tank again, ringing the bells.

This time the Choji-ball seemed to start spinning, making the movement erratic and hard to read. It seemed to bounce around, spinning until it reached Kin. Kin had enough times to ring the bells loudly one final time before the ball hit. There was a sharp cry, an explosion and a cloud of dust welled up, making it almost impossible for Naruto to see what was happening.

When the smoke cleared, Naruto was able to see the two motionless figures of Kin and Choji. It looked like Kin knew a technique that could make the bells make people unconscious within a certain range, but Kin would also be caught in it. That would make it a technique only be be used when defeat was inevitable.

"Actually, that was rather interesting," Neji remarked.

Haku nodded.

"She's not using it to it'll full potential though," he said, "Maybe she's just learning to work with the frequencies..."

"Both Tsuchi Kin and Akimichi Choji are unable the battle. The match in a draw and both fail," Hayate proclaimed, after receiving a nod from Danzou.

A group of medics ran into the arena to take both of the figures to whatever medical ward that they had made up. They were placed on stretchers and carted off as the computer began to sort through names again. Naruto watched again with a bored expression as the names appeared and disappeared until finally it stopped.

**Ryou vs. Taiki**

Naruto started a little bit and looked at Haku.

"This is unexpected," he blinked.

Haku nodded, "Well, Taiki let's do our best."

"Taijutsu only?" Naruto asked as the two walked down the stairs.

"Agreed," Haku nodded, "No other jutsu whatsoever. Is a five minute time limit alight with you?"

"Yeah, it'll keep me from slipping up and doing something too impressive," Naruto smirked.

Haku smiled a little.

Both walked into the arena and faced one another calmly. There wasn't any hostility from either person, nor was there any weakness. Both of them appeared both ready and willing to fight one another with everything that they had.

"This match is between Ryou and Taiki, both of Kusa, all former rules apply," Hayate said calmly. "I hope that team loyalties will not interfere in this match."

Neither Naruto or Haku responded, but Hayate seemed satisfied.

"Begin,"

Anko stared with disgust at something green and pickled that was floating in one of the jars in Orochimaru's underground lab. Why didn't they just clean it up? What was that thing anyways? It looked kind of like a floating head, but it could have been a sandwich turned science experiment, and with Orochimaru's research habits, it was possible.

"What are we doing here in the middle of the afternoon, Iruka?" Anko asked, "Won't we be caught?"

"Yugao did the genjustu over us, and she's rather good, so I don't think so," Iruka smiled, and then his smile turned slightly vicious, "We have an appointment with Tenzo. He's going to tell us what he's managed to learn."

Anko starred at him.

"It's only been a hour," she remarked.

"That's all the time that he could have," Iruka sighed, "It was only because that Kotetsu and Izumo are still in the position of the assistants to the Hokage-"

"Gophers," coughed Anko.

"-that Tenzo was able to get any kind of information at all. We have to deal with what we have."

"But we still don't know if they have an genjutsu over themselves or not to hide certain things," Anko pointed out, "The information could easily be wrong."

Iruka nodded, "You're right, but we have to check. Konoha has plenty of enemies right now, and we need to know who it is and why they're doing it."

"Somehow, I think we'll know soon enough," Anko sighed, "Even if we don't find out."

Everything seemed to be happening at once.

There was a polite clearing of someone's throat behind them and Tenzo appeared.

He was a good natured man who had been in the ANBU before it had been pretty much disbanded. There was an ANBU, but it was mostly there for show. They were underfunded, had no power, and were generally ignored by everyone. It was a pitiful end for the group that was once considered to be the elite of the elite.

Tenzo now was a simple Jonin, but Anko couldn't say if he had any real status. He was too much a part of the old regime to go too far. It was strange that there was talk of Anko receiving a promotion when she didn't have the power in certain areas to be a Jonin. It was because she had a bloodthirsty persona that seemed easy to exploit. Or maybe she would get assigned some mission that she couldn't handle on purpose. That was what had happened to Asuma's brother.

He had be assigned a mission that he couldn't possibly have completed. Danzou would have had trouble completing it. It had been suicide as a solo mission, but he had accepted, as if it would prove his loyalty to Konoha.

Naturally, he had been brought back in a white box for his family.

That had been the last straw for Asuma. He had been the one who had first gotten them all together, it was a word of mouth group. Only people who they all knew were not loyal to the new Hokage were told of it. People who's loyalties were debatable or just hard to tell, like the old leader of the ANBU who Anko had never learned the name of, were left out of the group as well.

They had to be more careful then ever when they had invaded Kumo. That was when Jiraiya had contacted them with the information that he had a team of ninja who would be willing and able to assist in any coup attempt that they planned. They were sorely outnumbered and needed all the help they could get. Besides, anyone Jiraiya trusted with this would have to be trustworthy. She hadn't thought that they were going to be the missing kids and their friends. Anko seriously wished that she could have seen them. Then again, they must have held back, and that would had disappointed her.

Tenzo's voice broke Anko out of her thoughts and she listened to Tenzo's story.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't able to learn much of anything," he was saying, "There are several people from various villages that are hostile or neutral that somewhat match the descriptions but not completely. It's probably a genjustu of some kind. It seems that genjustu specialists are becoming more and more common."

"And was there anything else?" Iruka asked.

"No, nothing important," Tenzo shock his head, "I'm sorry, you two, but I really have to leave now. I'm going to be missed soon."

"That's fine," Anko said with a smile, "Ja ne!"

"Thank you for your hard work, Tenzo-san," Iruka smiled politely, "I'm sorry for dragging you into this and have you come back empty handed."

Tenzo smiled a little, "It's not a problem. I'm just glad that I could help in anyway that I could. I only wish that I could have done more."

He disappeared very suddenly, but Anko barely payed any attention to him. After all, that technique was one that even she knew by heart. She looked over at Iruka thoughtfully. There was no reason why this day should be a complete waste, and she had told that little white lie to his friend...they needed an alibi.

A smile appeared on her face.

"So, Iruka, how about coming with me for some dango," she smiled, "Your treat."

"Of cour-what?!" Iruka was very surpirsed.

"Oh, come on," Anko smirked, "I'm bored, let's have some fun."

"Anko...did you just ask me on a date?" he asked.

Anko moved up closer to him.

"Well, I've been doing some thinking, and you're the only guy who actually treats me politely...so maybe I should grab you before someone else does..."

"You make it sound like I'm some kind of luxury item," Iruka sighed, "I assume you mean now?"

"Yep!"

"You're going to harass me until I saw yes aren't you?"

"Yep!"

Iruka sighed, "I might as well submit to fate."

"Yep!"

Naruto ducked down to avoid Haku's roundhouse kick and attempted to kick Haku's legs out from under him. Haku had already jumped back and was preparing to charge again. Anyone who said that Haku was bad at taijustu had never fought him.

While he preferred to use his Kekkei Genkai, it wasn't because he was unable to do anything else. Haku was light, and that was something that he was able to use to his advantage. He couldn't hit as hard, but he could move faster then Naruto. Sometimes it was hard to tell who was faster, him or Sasuke.

Naruto barely dodged a punch and finally managed to get a kick in, it connected, but it was only a glancing blow. Haku used the second that Naruto had overbalanced and punched him in the gut. Both sprang back, panting a little bit.

"This is getting annoying," Haku painted.

Naruto wanted to tell him to stop over dramatizing things but couldn't, he was over dramatizing it just as bad. This was really starting to become a pain to be constantly pulling punches and doing obvious moves. If he wanted to spar with Haku, he could do it better on his own time.

"You're right, let's get this over with," Naruto said. Looking like he was going to run towards Haku and then jumping to the left, off a wall and then towards him from an angle. Haku jumped forwards to meet him, and Naruto fought against the urge to let out a very dramatic war cry. Haku's fist hit Naruto dead on, and the Mizu Bunshin popped, soaking Haku with water that was very, very sticky.

"Taiki!" Haku said angrily, "I thought we said no jutsu!"

"Oh, I thought you meant you weren't going to use jutsu..." Naruto's voice said from somewhere, "Opps. It's been five minutes...and that was my jutsu...so I guess I win?"

Haku glared at him.

"You cheated,"

"Ninja cheat. It's what we do," Naruto shrugged.

"Ryou has forfeited, the match goes to Taiki!" Hayate was engulfed in a coughing fit.

"Was your 'sticky Mizu Bunshin' really necessary?" Haku hissed as they walked up the stairs were people couldn't here them.

"Hey, it looked real didn't it?" Naruto grinned, "Doing this little drama was kind of hard. And I had to give Danzou, something to work with. Now he probably thinks I'm from Kiri. Aren't I brilliant?"

Haku laughed a little, "You sure think so. I still wish that we could have just used Jan-Ken-Pon instead. It would have saved so much time."

"You might have won, and then the plan would have been messed up," Naruto pointed out, "This way, we both knew I was going to cheat or something at the end, and you were going to forfeit. It was actually easier."

"Well, now you're we've got the two who were supposed to lose and one who wasn't supposed to lose but did. Neji's going to have a problem..."

**Omake: **Things My Brother Taught Me

A five year old Sasuke followed his ten year old brother closely as Itachi, already a Chuunin, led the two home. Sasuke was walking a little slowly and on his face was a look of childish thought. Finally, as if he had reached a decision, he looked up.

"Aniki, I have a question," he said.

"Oh, what's that?" Itachi asked, looking a little amused at the serious tone that his younger brother had taken.

"Why does the girl who works at the fruit stand giggle whenever she sees you?" Sasuke asked, "You're not doing anything funny."

Itachi was thoughtful for a moment as he walked past the playground. He led Sasuke up to the swings and motioned for him to sit down. Sasuke did so, wondering what was the meaning behind this. Usually, Itachi went straight home.

"Sasuke, you and I have inherited our mother's features," Itachi told him seriously, "Our mother is a very pretty woman, and as we're boys, the features make girls like that very excited. Many usually normal young ladies turn into what is referred to as 'fangirls'. These are highly undignified young ladies who have temporarily, sometimes permanently, lost a piece of their sanity."

Sasuke stared at him with very wide eyes.

"We do that to them?" he asked horrified.

"Yes, it's not our fault, but that is what happens," Itachi continued, "What's worse is that this loss of sanity is contagious. If you are in contact with them long enough, you will loss the part of your sanity known as realism and begin to believe that you are just as wonderful as they tell you that you are. This can be fatal to a ninja."

"What should I do?" Sasuke asked.

"It's best to treat them politely, since it's not their fault that they've been changed into such things," Itachi advised, "But you should always keep your distance from them at all costs. Even if it means that you have to take longer to get to a certain place. Don't speak to them anymore then you must, it only encourages them. As you get older, you'll become more and more interested in girls, and my advice to you is to associate only to those who are capable of criticizing you. Only those types of girls will remain unaffected by fangirlism."

"But girls are weird," Sasuke said, folding his arms, "The fruit girl wouldn't stop laughing."

"That was because she was beset by the curse of fangirlism," Itachi told him, "Had she been speaking to someone else, she would have been perfectly normal."

"Fangirls are scary right?" Sasuke asked thoughtfully.

"You have no idea," Itachi mumbled, remembering some more...interesting encounters, "They usually move in packs. Now, we're brothers, so we have to make a promise. When you get attacked by them, Aniki will do his best to get them away, but in return, when Aniki gets attacked you're going to need to help me."

"Ok!"

"Good," Itachi said, noticing a few girls sneaking towards them. "Now, come on and help Aniki run for his sanity."

* * *

_I'm so sorry for the late update, but a lot's been happening, and I went on a vacation for two weeks. That's why some messages and reviews weren't replied to. By the time I was back, I doubted that the person would even remember what they wrote. _

_Additional Notes:_

_Sakura's techniques: Hey, she was supposedly a genius and a genjutsu type. I assumed that since Tsunade was training her, she would have but more focus on her training. Also, (from experience) it's a whole lot more difficult to droll over a guy that you're close friends with then one you only know from a distance. You know him and his faults too well. _

_Sakura's loss: Since Sakura is a short range fighter, and Yumi is a mid range fighter who can fight short range, I thought that she needed to lose. Also, I think that Sakura's fighting style has a major flaw when it comes to long or mid range battles. For instance, if Chiyo hadn't been there in the Sasori fight, Sakura would have died. This isn't because that she wasn't powerful enough to beat him, it was because she wasn't able to fight him long range, and wouldn't have been able to get close enough to him. I think that she needs to learn early that she needs to have some long range attacks. Naruto shares this problem, but he makes up for it with all the Kage Bunshin._

_Eating with someone: In some Eastern cultures, people don't eat with people who they consider there enemies. For instance, in the Count of Monte Cristo, the Count, who was heavily influenced by Eastern customs, refused to eat anything in the house of one of the people who he was going to get his revenge on. I don't think that this is true in Japan, but I thought it would be an interesting way to say that Sasuke was declaring a blood feud. I took a while to say, since I didn't want to sound totally stupid or cliché. Yes, he's pretty much declared himself not a member of their family...this topic will come back later._

_Sasuke's Victory: This is a small demonstration of Hakumei's actual power in comparison to a real Genin. I thought that it would allow everyone to see just what they were really able to do, even if they weren't using kekkei genkai. Everyone's really holding back..._

_Kiba: Yeah, he's being decent to Kimimaro. This is mostly because since Kimimaro beat him, Kiba has been proven wrong. Also, taking bits of his personalitiy from a dog, it would be natural for him to be decent to someone who just beat him. That means Kimimaro's higher up in the pack then him._

_White Boxes: In WWII, the Japanese soldiers who died were cremated and brought back to their families in white boxes. (White symbolizes death in both Chinese and Japanese cultures.) Although I don't know if that's what they did in this world, I thought that it would be nice to use, even if the Naruto universe takes on more Shinto elements than Buddhist (In Shinto, you're buried, not cremated.) it would be more likely for a warlike society to cremate their dead then to bury them. Or at least, that's what I've seen in history_

_Translations_

_Sakura Fubuki no Jutsu__ - Sakura Blizzard Technique: Sakura throws numerous kunai attached with bags of exploding tags and cherry blossom petals to help camouflage the tags. Sakura simply has to throw an additional kunai with an exploding tag to ignite the tags and catch the enemy in a large explosion. _

_Ki__nzoku__ Tate no Jutsu – Metal Shield Techinque: A technique that can only be used if the user has both fire and earth elements. The user creates a metal dome that will protect them from one attack. After that attack, it will disolve. (Original Jutsu)_

_Genwaku Sakura no Jutsu – Blinding Sakura Technique: A genjutsu that traps the victem in a haze of cherry blossoms, used to cut down visiblity. (Original Jutsu)_

_Kinzoku Shihai no Jutsu – Metal Direction Technique: A technique that allows the user to manipulate the course of a metal object or one with metal in it. Very useful in battles. _

_Nikudan Sensha – Human Bullet Tank:__After the user makes themselves into a human-sized ball, they tuck their limbs inside their clothes and use chakra to propel themselves into a powerful, but fairly slow, roll. _

_Suzu Senbon no Genkaku – Illusion Bell Technique: By attaching the bells to senbon (throwing needles) and throwing them at her target, Kin can get them to dodge and subsequently ignore the bells. Additionally, the target may believe the bells are actually designed to lull them into a false sense of security. In actuality, she has strings attached to the bells, which allows her to ring them, and the bells ring at a certain frequency, which directly affects the brain. This causes her target to see multiple copies of herself, making it impossible to tell the real one from the illusions. Additionally, the target loses their motor skills with continued exposure to the ringing. _

_Kyabi-Kyabi-Bimbo_

_Impo-Wimp_

_Chikusho-Beast (fight worthy word)_

_Jan-Ken-Pon-Japanese Rock Paper Scissors. As a random piece of triva, the game actually originated in Japan and was adopted by the Western world to be known as Rock Paper Scissors. And people say you never learn anything from fanfiction and anime._


	22. Part 2: Ties

_Author's Corner: In the magical kingdom that the Princess Pryotra lived, all was not well. The evil green goblin had once again attenpted to thwart the princess's attempts to bring about peace and harmony via her magical box. He used another spell to attack her box. This time, it made the faithful magical item forget the story that she was telling it, and forced her to start again from the beginning. Not one to be discouraged, the princess set to work, although the pressure and work of her lessons that would cause her to one day be a great and well known story teller made her have to slow down._

_I'm really sick of computer woes._

_Just to tell you, I'm going to skip a few battles. I'm tired of writing fight scenes._

_Random thoughts about the anime: I'm bored with team Hebi, but I adored Kakashi Gaiden. Did you cry, cause I sure did. Obito was the best Uchiha other than Itachi! I didn't mind Rin too much either..._

_Random thoughts about the manga: Woot. So, Orochimaru and Danzou might have had some kind of connection with one another. So, did he have something to do with Sasuke running off? Gaara, I love you (in a completely non-sexual way) you're just so cute... and Danzou has Shisui's eye, and that one guy has a Hyuuga eye...um...it is just me or does everyone suddenly have one eye that came from a major clan..?_

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns nothing other than the plot of Hakumei. She also owns a somewhat continuous stomach ache, but that's something completely different._

_Thanks to Ibby-kun (MegaB) for betaing for me!_

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**It's not really paranoia when they're really out to get you.**_

_**-Unknown.**_

* * *

Naruto watched without too much interest as the match between Shikamaru and Kabuto drew to a close. While Kabuto seemed like he could have easily won, he just threw the match. Shikamaru seemed to have noticed this too because when Kabuto was 'knocked unconscious' Shikamaru gave him a very strange look. Kabuto was carried off by medics, and Shikamaru walked off to join Ino, still looking a little confused.

Truthfully, Kabuto confused Naruto as well. Why would he have gone through all the effort just to throw the match? It just didn't make sense unless he was working for someone. Naruto had a feeling that he didn't know about Hakumei, but then again, he had just been there to give Team Kekkei Genkai information about their opponents and kind of warn them to get out of the tournament. It seemed that Kabuto had done whatever it was that he had wanted to do, so he had gotten out of the whole thing quickly.

Naruto looked over at Neji, Hinata and Gaara. All three of them had to win, and they had to do it in a way that didn't get people to recognize them. The ones with the biggest problems were Gaara and Neji. Both of their techniques were recognizable. Gaara couldn't even turn off his power. No matter what he did, the sand would rise up to protect him.

Also, because of the fear that the villagers of Suna had had for him, Gaara would be easier to recognize than Naruto, who was basically just ignored, would be. Gaara had family here, and they would have had to have seen him at least a little. Gaara had once mentioned that he lived away from his real family with his uncle. Naruto had to admit he thought that that was one of the dumbest plans that he had heard of. It was kind of like begging Gaara to become a homicidal maniac. Then again, that might have been what Gaara's father had wanted anyways...

Hinata would have the easiest time of all of them. She could activate the Tenshi Byakugan beneath the genjutsu. That made her able to use it, but she still couldn't use the Juuken. The Hyuuga family technique was just too obvious. Hinata had her own tricks though, so she would probably be fine.

Neji might have some problems. The Byakugan couldn't be activated, and most of his techniques used it. They really hadn't planned for a situation like this. All of Naruto's dreams of invading Konoha had involved an attack and marching down the main street in full Hakumei uniform.

Although deception and stealth were some of the things drilled into them mercilessly, this wasn't something that anyone had anticipated. Naruto only hoped that that didn't come back to haunt him.

He kept up a bored face as he watched the computer sort through names of the remaining people. Naruto noticed as Haku began to back away and slip out. Apparently, he was going to do a little snooping. The least that he could do was pretend that he wasn't noticing.

Finally, the pinging sound reached Naruto's ears and he looked up to see the new fighters' names.

**Haru vs. Tenten**

Naruto blinked at the pairing and looked over at Neji, who was looking completely unconcerned. Neji slowly straightened himself from his position of leaning around the rail and sauntered downstairs into the area. Tenten stiffened when her name went up and a she walked down quickly, looking nervous. She was walking stiffly, looking over at Neji a few times and biting her lip. Naruto wondered just why she looked so nervous.

Both faced one another in the arena as Hayate looked between them. He coughed a little and began the usual pre-fight speech. Neji had his arms crossed and looked rather uninterested in the entire thing, but Tenten was looking like she wanted to just attack with everything that she had and to be done with the whole thing.

"Begin!" Hayate called.

Tenten wasted no time. She grabbed a large scroll, bit her finger and pressed it against the scroll. Immediately, a shower of different weapons soared towards Neji. He didn't look like he would have time to dodge, but as they started to land, they caused dust to rise, blocking everyone's vision. Naruto knew just what was going to happen. If there was a chance for Neji to take advantage of things, he would.

Tenten smirked, looking like she was sure of victory.

The smoke cleared, showing Neji standing untouched, surrounded by weapons.

"I assume you're just getting warmed up," he said, "Because if that's the best you can do, I'll win easily."

Tenten's eyes narrowed angrily, "I'll crush you, Kusa nin!"

"You continually mention my village," Neji commented, "I wonder if it's because you're not really a Konoha nin anyways."

With a scream of rage, Tenten took out two scrolls and preformed a series of seals.

"Soshoryuu!" she cried, jumping into the air and opening the scrolls.

An even greater shower of weapons began to fall, raining down towards Neji, Naruto was able to see him dodge the first two, and then the dust was too much for him to see anything, but Naruto knew that he had employed the Hakkesho Kaiten, Neji's all time favorite move. That also kicked up more dust, so it would be almost impossible to see what he was doing. It looked to Naruto like Neji was going to win this battle by psyching Tenten out or something.

Neji was always really good at that.

The dust cleared again, and Tenten hit the ground, this time, she looked like she was a little more prepared. Neji was surrounded by the weapons again, but he was unharmed. Tenten stretched out her hands and the weapons began to shudder a little. Neji didn't waste time. He dashed forwards, kunai in hand and attacked Tenten. She jumped back, narrowly avoiding the swipe of the kunai, but the weapons stopped moving.

"You..." Tenten whispered, "You figured out the wires after only seeing them twitch?"

"I figured that you were smart enough to know that there was a good chance that the second attack would fail like the first one; therefore, you would have taken an extra measure," Neji said dashing forwards again, "I'm not going to allow you to perform another attack like that."

"I won't lose to a foreign nin!" Tenten cried, a staff appearing in her hands.

She charged at Neji, who dodged easily, grabbed hold of the staff and managed to force it from her. Tenten wasn't the only one who had learned to use weapons. All of Hakumei knew how to use a weapon at least somewhat well.

"I wonder why you're so worried about the fact that I come from Kusa," Neji said conversationally as he whirled the staff towards her, "Could it be because you're not from Konoha?"

Tenten growled a little, "It's none of your business."

"It must have been difficult going to school after the Sandaime's assassination. People in Konoha don't seem to approve of taking in foreigners as much as they used to," Neji continued, "So you thought that by defeating me, a ninja from another village, you could prove that you were truly a Konoha nin."

"Shut up!" Tenten screamed, taking out a scroll and making a mace appear from it. She jumped to attack, hitting the staff that Neji had stolen as he blocked. Neji just looked slightly amused. He was calmly and systematically attacking her psychologically. This was how he was going to make up for not having the Byakugan to help him.

Neji had long ago noticed how Naruto would talk to people when he fought, usually it just distracted them, but every so often, he would hit a nerve. Like that time when Naruto had somehow managed to get Gaara to talk about his family while they were sparring. Neji had realized that this was a wonderful way to win a fight, and had started to use it himself. So far, it had been very effective. Naruto had to admit that Neji was very good at what he was doing, although it wasn't very nice.

Tenten was wearing down.

"It's funny, you're wearing the Konoha symbol on your head yet you don't feel like a Leaf nin," Neji said, "You know something else..."

At that point, Neji lunged forward, and struck with the staff, forcing Tenten back. For a moment they were close, and Neji whispered something that Naruto couldn't hear. Tenten froze and stared at Neji for a split second. Neji sent a kick that Tenten didn't seem to notice. The kick hit her straight on and she crashed against the wall, and didn't move.

"Tenten is unable to continue," Hayate said, "The winner is Haru."

Neji smirked up at the spectators and walked up the stairs, ignoring as the medics rushed Tenten off. Neji resumed his place, leaning against the wall and looking down into the arena.

"I feel so much better now," Neji smirked.

"What did you say to her?" Naruto asked.

"That's for me to know and you to wonder about," Neji smirked, "Maybe I'll tell you at some later time."

That meant that when they were alone, Neji would explain everything. Naruto was rather interested. Neji seemed to be trying to do something with Tenten, but Naruto couldn't really tell what it was. The plan, since it was Neji, was going to be intricate and detailed, and Naruto was kind of looking forward to seeing what happened. Well, all in good time.

The next pair was announced.

**Rei vs. Ueda Matsuri **

Hinata took a small breath and walked down the stairs.

"Good luck," Naruto hissed to her.

Hinata smiled at Naruto briefly.

"Thank you, Taiki," she smiled, "I might need some of that later."

"Hopefully not, but you never know," Naruto watched as she walked off.

"You're surprisingly smooth when you want to be," Sasuke remarked.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"Yet he never seems to notice," Sai added.

"It is weird, isn't it?" Sasuke said thoughtfully.

"Extremely," Neji sighed, "I've been watching this whole thing for a while; his obliviousness never ceases to amaze me. Well, it's not like it's obvious or anything."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

The three just snickered a little.

Meanwhile, Hinata anad Matsuri had met one another on the field and bowed to one another.

"It's very nice to meet you," Matsuri said.

"A pleasure," Hinata returned, "I hope that we leave all hostilities with us when we finish our fight. Do your best."

"...Thank you," Matsuri mumbled.

Hinata smiled a little back.

"This match is between Rei of Kusa and Ueda Matsuri, there is no time limit, and all previous rules apply. You may begin!" Hayate called.

Hinata moved first throwing a succession of kunai that forced Matsuri to run back to avoid them. Hinata dashed forwards, taking a deep breath and performing hand seals at the same time.

"Dokugiri!" Hinata cried, breathing out.

A stream of purple gas erupted from Hinata's mouth and turned into a cloud that diffused around the room. Hinata had been careful. While there was enough to cause trouble, there wasn't enough to be a true danger to the spectators. Even the opponent wouldn't be in any real danger if they were treated immediately.

Matsuri didn't jump away; she turned her back and ran from the smoke, almost getting killed by the kunai that flew after her.

"Why don't you fight back?" Hinata said softly.

"I'm trying!" Matsuri almost sobbed.

"No, you're not," Hinata shook her head, "You're holding back. If you continue to do this, I'll not only defeat you, I'll kill you."

"Why would you care?" Matsuri asked bitterly.

"Because I used to be just like you, and because I want to fight an opponent who is strong," Hinata said, dashing forward an in a fluid motion, kicking Matsuri backwards.

"It's impossible," Matsuri said, stumbling back.

"Silly," Hinata said, performing a round house kick that was blocked, badly, "It's possible to change. No one was born strong or brave or good. We were all weak and frightened and driven only by selfishness. Everything else is something you learn. If you're weak, grow stronger, if you're frightened, focus that fear until it's your strength."

It was only then that Naruto noticed that the cloud of poison that Hinata had spat out was close and that Matsuri was a little weaker. She coughed a little and looked at Hinata.

"You herded me into it," she said.

"Yes," Hinata nodded, "I do have to win, even if I have nothing against you. I have someone I have to keep up with. If he grows too far ahead of me...then I won't be worthy of him. I hope the next time that we fight, you will have something to defeat me with. I hope that you change for the better."

Matsuri collapsed and Hinata looked over at Hayate with a calm smile.

"Ueda Matsuri is unable to continue. The winner is Rei."

Naruto looked over at Danzou, who was looking at Hinata. It was impossible to tell just what he was thinking. Yes, that technique was one that Shizune used, but Shizune wasn't really much of a fighter, and also, that wasn't a distinctive style. Anyone who was good with poisons would be able to use that technique. At least, Naruto hoped so.

* * *

Haku wasn't sure just what he was going to find or even what he was looking for, but he knew that this was the time to go looking around for anything. Danzou was busy watching everyone, and most of the Jonin were there too. If someone found him, Haku would just say that he was looking for the bathroom or something. If all else failed he had a drug with him that would make anyone gullible enough to believe anything he said by just smelling it.

Haku liked drugs and herbs. He was a medic, but his abilities were much more in the realm of plants than medical jutsu, and he was just fine with that. Tsunade had shown him what she could, but Haku just hadn't had the gift for medical jutsu. However, he had had an almost scary ability with herbs and medicines, and, after all, they were on the same team. It wasn't a good idea to have people with the same abilities like that. There were things that he could do that Sakura and Hinata couldn't and things that they could do that he couldn't.

The hallways were all uniform yet the place was unexpectedly large. It was strange that they would have a place like this in the center of the Forest of Death, particularly if they only used it when the Chuunin Exams were in Konoha. What, then, was the purpose of having this kind of place there? It looked older; perhaps it had been used as an emergency meeting place for the Hokage and the Jonin during war or something.

At least Haku was able to use his actual skill. Up until now, he hadn't known just how irritating it was to constantly be holding back. He was sure that the others were thinking the same thing. They weren't Genin, and none of them had been at that level for years. It was tiring to have to pretend that they were just simple Genin. It was even more annoying to have to watch these children, arrogant and mostly weak talk down to the rest of Hakumei.

Haku wouldn't have minded if it was just him. He wasn't that unaccustomed to being looked down on, but he couldn't forgive Yumi or even Kiba for their arrogance. While Haku wouldn't touch Yumi, she was Sakura and Sasuke prey now, he would be more than happy to bring her to them. In order for the pair of them to teach her a lesson.

Haku waited a moment before turning a corner, pausing to see if any guards were on duty. Right now, it seemed like any reasonably intelligent five year old armed with his grandmother's hair pins would be able to get through the security in this place. There weren't even many security cameras in the building. Was it that there was nothing to hide or that all security was concentrated somewhere else?

There was a sound almost like footsteps and Haku jumped into the air and balanced himself into the wall's corner, performing a quick henge over himself to hide him. If anyone looked, they might notice that there was what seemed to be a metal shelf on the wall. There were a few of them in the hallways, so Haku hoped that it wouldn't be noticed.

Two people walked under him, both were Uchiha. They were roughly in their twenties, and both of them looked like they were on some kind of break.

"Yumi's doing a good job," one of them remarked, "I can't believe that that little girl thought she could win against her."

"She's a foreign nin. What did you expect?" the other rolled his eyes, "Hiro, you're naive sometimes. How would that girl have a clue who Yumi was?"

Hiro grunted.

"Besides, not many people are up to Yumi's level," the unnamed Uchiha shrugged.

"Well for one thing, she's not-" Hiro grumbled and Haku leaned forwards, trying to hear.

"Have you ever heard the saying 'walls have ears?'" the other one said angrily. "If you say things like that, someone will eventually hear you, you idiot."

"I don't care; maybe the foreign nin will leave if they figure it out, and then we wouldn't have to go through with all these stupid preparations. Treating foreigners is such a pain," Hiro grumbled. "I don't see why we have to do this..."

"How does Aiko put up with you?"

"She's a very lucky girl, and she knows it!"

"You're such an unbelievable idiot."

The two walked on and Haku waited until the sound of footsteps had died away completely. He jumped to the ground and looked at where the two had gone. So, Konoha had some kind of thing that it had to do because of the foreign nin. Haku would have to keep his eyes and ears open for this... and just what was so strange about Uchiha Yumi. She wasn't what?

Everyone seemed to be doing something...and all these plans were conflicting.

Haku walked softly down where the Uchiha pair had come from making sure his steps were quiet. There were still things he wanted to see.

After all, he was in a perfect position to spy under the statement that he wanted to go to his room and rest, which he had already sent a bunshin to do, and his precious people needed all the help that they could possibly get.

* * *

Shino's battle with the rather strange Ren had been interesting, but also one sided. Shino had defeated Ren with his bugs easily, but Ren hadn't seemed to have put up all that much of a fight against it. Once again, Naruto was watching the whole battle, feeling like there were too many sides to this exam.

It seemed to Naruto that Ren was deliberately throwing the match the way that Naruto had had three people who he had wanted to lose. Not only to make them seem weaker but because it was good to have allies all over the place when you were about to attack something. Maybe it was just paranoia because they were less than legitimate, but Naruto was suspicious of everyone that seemed strange to him, and from what Team Kekkei Genkai had said, there was something wrong with the other team from Kusa.

Naruto bit his lip and hoped that his not looking too hard into that team wouldn't come back and bite him at the most inopportune moment.

Ren walked off to the hospital to be treated and Shino returned to his place and stood next to Kakashi.

It was interesting how although Shino's insects actually ate his Chakra to live, Shino was probably one of the few Konoha Genin who were truly dangerous. Yumi was the only other one who Naruto had seen who might be a threat to them. Naruto might have to think of something to keep Shino's family from reacting too fast. Their logical way of thinking was actually very dangerous. They would react quickly and not be flustered easily.

He would have to talk to Neji and Sasuke and Kimimaro about that.

There was another ping and two more names appeared on the board

**Sora vs. Dosu**

Naruto blinked. For some reason he had expected himself or maybe Gaara to face Dosu. He wasn't sure why, just that was how he had envisioned things. Now that Sora guy was going to face him. Dosu walked back to Naruto as he headed for the stairs and didn't look at him. Naruto wondered just what was going to happen to him now. Sora seemed like he was completely unstable.

Sora smirked and punched the air with one fist.

"Finally, some action!" he yelled.

Sora jumped down from the landing he was on and started to crack his knuckles. He was staring at Dosu and grinning darkly.

"I'm gonna tear you limb from limb," he promised.

"We'll see," Dosu said. It was impossible to tell just what he was thinking, due to the bandages over his face. His eye was glaring out at him but he seemed to be thinking something. If Kimimaro's report was right, he had better be thinking of some way to get away from this battle. Naruto didn't care how good Dosu's Melody Arm was. It couldn't match up to him when he was under the influence of the Kyuubi, and it probably wouldn't help him against whatever jutsu that Sora used to go berserk. Naruto would have never considered Sora to be a berserker.

He seemed a lot like Kiba. Only more arrogant and with less family to back him up.

"This battle is between Kinuta Dosu of Oto and Sora from Konoha. All previous rules apply. You may begin," Hayate said, swinging one hand in the air.

Dosu had taken Sora's threat seriously. He performed a full sweep with his Melody Arm, not bothering to care about whether or not he hit Hayate (who had jumped to safety). Sora moved fast, running with the blast and trying to move closer.

"I won't let you!" Dosu snarled, sweeping faster.

"Looks like I'm going to have to show off," Sora had almost unholy glee in his face as he took out his pantra claws and slashed the air, "Futon: Juuha Sho!"

The wind attack forced Dosu to jump back, barely managing to dodge the attack, and Sora dashed closer.

"I told you I won't let you!" Dosu was sounding a little worried. Almost as if he could sense something.

Come to think of it, Naruto was starting to feel something coming from Sora. It was somehow...unnatural...and sick.

"What...is that?" Naruto hissed.

"It feels familiar," Gaara said, looking a little sick, "Sandy Wandy's...trying to take over..."

"This feels kind of like what you felt like in the Forest," Sasuke hissed.

Naruto tensed up, but that was impossible. All of the Bijuu were in known locations or their Jinchuuriki were present and accounted for. There had only been one Jinchuuriki made in Konoha anyways. It wasn't like the Bijuu usually attacked in groups. Naruto got the feeling that they didn't like one another much more than they liked anyone else. Even Jiraiya had never actually heard of an incident where more than one of the Bijuu had been present in one place at the same time. The Bijuu seemed to be solitary creatures.

Unless he had been made into a Jinchuuriki to contain a tenth Bijuu later, then it was completely impossible.

Naruto could almost see the Chakra around Sora. The boy was moving faster than even Sasuke or Haku could hope to, and slashed Dosu's bandages. There was a scream and the bandages started to fall down. Naruto was hit with both pity and horror at the boy's face. In addition to the new scratch wounds, the right side of his face was completely burned to the point where you could almost see the muscles. The right eye had been burned shut and his mouth was upturned into a permanent sneer. The burn scars seemed to stretch down his face to his neck, but the rest was hidden by the bandages.

"Dang, you're ugly!" Sora said with a sneer attacking again, this time attacking his chest. Dosu coughed and a large amount of blood started to come out.

Dosu's good eye darted around and rested on Hayate. He didn't say a word, but there was a kind of proud desperation in his eyes. He needed help, but he was either too proud or too scared to admit it. Hayate caught the message.

"Dosu is unable to continue. The match goes to Sora," he said.

"Too bad!" Sora yelled, "I'm having fun!"

He dashed towards Dosu, his claw outstretched and looking like he had every intention of killing the Oto nin. There was a clang and Sora looked with surprise at the blade of a katana that was blocking his path. Hayate didn't look quite so sick anymore as he gazed sternly down at Sora.

"I believe that I said that the match was over," he said calmly. "Withdraw or you will be disqualified, and if you resist, I will attack."

Naruto felt a spike of killing intent from the man.

"You know, I think that he's kind of dangerous," Sai said, "I don't want to cross him."

"Wasn't he an ANBU?" Hinata asked.

"I see why they were called 'the elite of the elite'," Sasuke said, his eyes glued to him. Naruto had a pretty good idea why he was so interested. Itachi had been in ANBU, and since Sasuke had been so young, it was hard for him to really understand just what that meant. Now that Sasuke was older, he was starting to truly understand what that really meant. ANBU wasn't just a profession. It was a philosophy.

Sora snarled at Hayate, but he hesitated. There was a slight battle of wills going on. For one thing, Hayate looked sickly and like he wouldn't be all that hard to kill, he had moved surprisingly fast, and he didn't look sick all of a sudden. Naruto made a mental note to check on his past and see if that was a real sickness or just some kind of false one that he made so that people would underestimate him. It sounded like something that a ninja might do.

"This battle is over," Hayate repeated, and looked like he was about to attack just for good measure when Sora finally spoke.

"Alright, alight, jeez!" Sora was suddenly an image of wounded pride, "I was just playing with him. Can't you take a joke?"

Hayate said nothing, but motioned for the medics to take Dosu away and for Sora to leave the arena. Sora stalked off, and Hayate resumed his position.

The computer began to whirl again and Naruto looked around, there was only one of Kabuto's teammates left along with Kiyoko and Aoi from Kusa and, of course, Gaara. There wasn't much of anyone left. A feeling of relief hit him. Gaara's victory was guaranteed. Hopefully, their cover was fine as well.

The ping sounded and Naruto looked up to see the names.

**Akado Yoroi vs Shinta**

"Good luck," Hinata said softly, "Even though I know you don't need it."

Gaara smiled, "I'll be done shortly."

Gaara did nothing at all conspicuous. While he couldn't have moved around through the sand, Gaara didn't seem to want to tempt fate too much. There was always a very dangerous chance that he would be caught or remembered. Best not to make his power too obvious.

Yoroi shrugged, seeming completely indifferent to who his opponent was, and jumped from the balcony. The two faced one another and bowed slightly, but their eyes never left one another.

"This match is between Akado Yoroi of Konoha and Shinta of Kusa. All previous rules apply. You may begin."

At the word 'begin' the cork on Gaara's gourd had popped out and a small stream of sand was drifting around him. Yoroi seemed to be a little smarter than most people, and didn't rush in; he sent two kunai with explosive tags flying at Gaara, who didn't bother to move.

While Gaara was actually pretty fast when he wanted to be, he usually didn't bother to block attacks like that. His sand had plenty of time to react to something like that. As the smoke cleared, it showed Gaara, standing with his arms crossed and a shield of sand surrounding him. Yoroi hadn't waited to see what was going to happen. He had run up behind him and grabbed for him, in some kind of parody of a hug.

"Chakra Kyuin Jutsu," he hissed.

Thankfully, the sand was out already so no one was all that surprised when the sand reacted by exploding out and sending Yoroi into a wall.

Gaara whispered something that could have been taken for a jutsu name but was more likely Gaara muttering to himself about how much force to use and how people were fragile. Gaara had to be careful not to use his sand the way he usually did, which would result in death if you weren't paying attention. Naruto knew that for a fact.

Naruto looked over to see what Gaara's siblings were doing. Temari was leaning forwards with a bored look on her face, and Kankuro was doing something with what looked suspiciously like an arm of some kind of puppet. Temari sensed Naruto's gaze and looked over at him, rolling her eyes, and Naruto looked away. They didn't look like they had noticed anything. Actually, in this case, he was more worried about them than Danzou.

Yoroi didn't seem to be moving and Hayate made a motion to examine him. It looked like he had been hit hard on the head and was out cold already.

Naruto felt a spike of killing intent from somewhere. His eyes darted around but he didn't see anywhere that it should have come from. It wasn't directed at him or any one of Hakumei that much Naruto could tell, but the feeling was putting him on edge.

"How weak," Naruto heard Yumi sneer, "And to think that that was a Konoha nin."

"Shinta-kun is very surprising," Shino said calmly.

For a moment, Shino's sunglasses seemed to move so that he was looking at Naruto, but Naruto couldn't be sure.

"Do you think we should shut him up," Sasuke said in something that was barely a whisper.

"Later," Naruto said, meaning that he wanted to talk later.

"Akado Yoroi is unable to continue," Hayate said calmly, "The winner of his match is Shinta from Kusa."

* * *

Temari wasn't all that interested in the next match between a particularly foul mouthed Oto nin and her teammate. She was fairly more interested in the match that had just ended. She continued leaning against the rail, without any real interest on her face, but her mind was racing.

Was it possible?

Temari didn't remember all that much about her youngest brother. What she did was mostly tainted by the fear that her village had had of the young Jinchuuriki. She hadn't even been allowed to live in the same house as him. When she was younger, Temari had thought little to nothing of it, but as she grew, she had wondered.

When Gaara had disappeared, she had only had a vague feeling of sadness but mostly of relief. Gaara had mostly been a face that she was taught to fear. She was only slightly away of Gaara's existence as a person, and that was only because of the one incident where she had actually been with him without her father or the elders of Suna watching over them.

It had been when her pet cat had died. Nyanko-chan had been old and she had finally died in her sleep. Nonetheless the nine year old Temari had been devastated. She had wandered off alone to one of the many deserted and sandy places to bury her old friend, and she had been sitting with her face buried in her knees sobbing when she had felt the presence of another person. Temari had looked up, thinking that it was her father, who would have reprimanded her for showing any kind of weakness, particularly for something so stupid as a dead cat. Instead, she had looked into the black-rimmed blue eyes of her youngest brother.

"Gaara," Temari had breathed, not sure whether to be afraid of him or not.

"...I liked Nyanko..." he said softly, "She wasn't afraid of me..."

Slowly, he held something out for her; Temari realized that it was a figurine made of sand. She knew she shouldn't take it. Temari knew that taking anything from Gaara was to invite the demon to take an interest in her. She knew that her little brother had been killed when he was born and the demonic tanuki had taken his body, but right then, Temari hadn't cared.

"I made this for Nyanko," Gaara had said, looking down.

Temari had reached for the figurine but had been interrupted by the sudden arrival of their father. The man had been furious that Temari had run off and angrier that Gaara had appeared. The figurine was smashed, and Temari had been grabbed and taken home by the elders. She had looked over her shoulder once at Gaara, who had watched her being taken away.

His eyes had been so haunted.

Temari now looked at the red haired boy who was talking to his friends. The blonde had an arm around his shoulders and the others were close, smiling and laughing with him. Shinta scowled a little at something that the boy with the long brown hair said, and smiled at something that the girl told him. He looked content and very attached to all of them in a way that told her that they had all experienced hardships together.

"Hey, Nee-chan," Kankuro said thoughtfully, "Isn't that Shinta guy kind of familiar?"

Temari looked at Kankuro and looked at Shinta.

For a moment, he glanced over at her and their eyes met.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Temari said.

* * *

"Aoi has forfieted the match, therefore the winner is Kiyoko," Hayate announced.

The battle had been very boring. Neither of them had used a single jutsu, they had just attempted to pound one another into submission. They hadn't even used any weapons. Seriously, the theme of this entire preliminary seemed to have been 'don't show anything about your techniques to anyone because I'm hiding my real abilities'. Well, at least this way they didn't look all that suspicious, only like they were keeping their real power hidden until the finals.

"Will the winners of all the matches please come down so that I can assign you your first opponents in the Exam," Hayate called.

Everyone slowly filed down into the center of the arena and stood single file, waiting to see what would happen. Someone had to go and summon Kimimaro from the infirmary, and he appeared quickly and took a place between Gaara and Hinata. Hayate walked along the line and handed each of them a piece of paper. When Naruto received his, he unfolded it to see the number three written on it. Naruto shrugged and waited.

"As I'm sure you're all wondering, the number that you've received is going to be matched up by random with another number. They will be your first match. The Final Exam will be held one month from today," Hayate explained.

The computer began to whirl and the numbers began to match together.

"Alright," Sora growled, "Who has three?"

Naruto raised his hand, "Excellent," he said.

"Couldn't agree more," Sora smirked.

"Who has ten?" Kiyoko called out.

Hinata stepped forwards and bowed a little, "I look forwards to our match, Kiyoko-san, may the best ninja win."

Kiyoko looked like she was trying to find an insult in her words, and couldn't believe that there wasn't one. No one could be that polite!

Sasuke and Yumi's eyes met and both of them held out their numbers. Seven and one. Nothing was said, but Naruto felt like the look that they were giving one another spoke volumes. Naruto could practically see the sparks flying between them.

"Until then," Sasuke said.

"It will be interesting to see how you plan to carry out your revenge," Yumi said in her perpetually calm voice.

Neither bowed, and neither turned away from the other one. They simply ceased to acknowledge one another's existence. Well, it was better than just trying to kill one another at any rate. There would be plenty of time for that later, in the meantime both of them would probably attempt to spy on one another.

Shikamaru didn't seem to want to bother with attempting to find out just who his opponent was going to be, but he soon found out when Temari calmly walked up, grabbed the paper out of his hand, and looked at it.

"You're my opponent," she said looking him over, "You better train yourself hard, loser. I hate weak men. I have a tendency to kill them."

"...troublesome woman," Shikamaru groaned.

"Why do I always get the weird ones?" Temari complained to her brother, "First it was mister personality and now it's a guy who might just fall asleep in the middle of the match."

Kankuro shrugged.

Neji looked over at Naruto.

"Hey, Taiki, it looks like you're going to have to fight twice," He said, looking at the chart of matches.

"I have to fight _you_?" Naruto asked.

Neji just smirked.

"Just great. Why couldn't you have had to fight someone else? I hate fighting you," Naruto grumbled.

Fighting Neji was no easy feat, even when he wasn't using the Byakugan. The guy was smart and he knew all of Naruto weaknesses. A long time ago, he had been overconfident, and Naruto had beaten him. Neji had never made that mistake again. He firmly believed that everyone was to be assumed to be at least as powerful as himself and to be fought as such, even if he didn't treat them that way.

Kimimaro and Shino, being the last ones there, both bowed to one another.

"I will look forwards to our match, Yuuma-san," Shino said, "I hope that we both learn a great deal from the experience."

Kimimaro nodded, "I hope there is no undue tension between us because we are from different villages. After all, while a ninja serves his village faithfully, that doesn't mean that he must hate the ninja of other places."

"I agree,"

That was likely to be an interesting match, if it even came about.

Gaara was simply looking at Kankuro who was biting his lip as he stared at him. From what Naruto could read off of his face, Gaara was upsetting the puppeteer.

"The lineup is as follows," Hayate said, "Yumi and Masaru will fight one another first, followed by Taiki and Sora, Shikamaru and Temari, Rei and Kiyoko, Kankuro and Shinta, Yuuma and Shino and finally the winner of the first match against Haru. You all have exactly one mouth to prepare for the Exam. It will be held in the stadium at eight sharp. If you are not present for your match, you will be disqualified. Name, rank, or reputation will not prevent this.

"The Exam itself, as you can see, is a series of battles. The winner progresses to another battle, but the matches are judged not by who wins or loses but by who shows the mentality of a Chuunin. In this way a person who lost his first match could become a Chuunin, and the winner of the Exams might not. Do you all understand?"

There were some nods, but most of them just stared at him. Hayate coughed a little and generally looked sick, but seemed to steady himself.

"All of you are free to leave. There is an underground route out of the complex that you will be using. Foreign nin, you will be staying at the same hotel. Train well, and good luck in the exams," Hayate bowed a little bit and turned away, towards the stand where Danzou watched. The man seemed rather uninterested with the entire ordeal. Slowly, the participants of the Exams, filed either to their rooms to get any supplies that they had left there the previous night, the door that led to the tunnel or to the medical ward.

Hakumei went to check up on Sakura, who they found sitting up in her bed, looking bored, and talking to Haku. He seemed to have come through another door. Sakura was twirling some hair between her fingers as she spoke about some idle nonsense. There were a few medics nearby and one of them was Tsunade. Naruto gave no indication that he had ever seen her before in his life, and passed her without a glance.

"Emi," Sasuke said, not quite looking at her, "How are you feeling?"

"Nothing too damaged other than my pride. The medics here are pretty good, they patched up my arm fast, but they said I need to wear a cast for about a week or two. Annoying," Sakura said, "Ryou told me all about what happened with Yumi."

"She was begging for it," Sasuke sneered, "And I promise you, she'll pay for what she did to you."

Sakura gave him a strange look. Naruto couldn't quiet place it, but the closest emotion would have been worry. She didn't bite her lip or look down, but just for a moment, her eyes had narrowed and her lips had lightened.

"...Don't...push yourself too hard and...If you're fighting her and you have to surrender, do it," Sakura whispered.

"Never," Sasuke said angrily, "I'm not going to hold back, Emi, but don't worry, I'll be careful."

Sakura sighed, "I'm not going to get anywhere with you am I?" she grumbled, "Just don't do something incredibly stupid like that one time with the robber, alright?"

"That memory is going to be one of those that is brought up when we're both old, and you have to shout it for me to hear it isn't it?"

"Probably,"

Tsunade broke up the meeting by walking up to them and giving Sakura a clean bill of health (other than the cast) and all but shooing them all out. She walked fine, but seemed a little on the tired side. Sakura kept looking over at Sasuke, but seemed to think better of saying anything. Nothing would dissuade him from his vengeance anyways.

"Well, I guess I know that he cares about me," Naruto heard Sakura sigh to him, "But there's something really wrong with that girl...and I'm kind of worried that he might have chosen someone he can't beat right now."

"Don't worry," Naruto said, "We have a month to train, and a month is a surprisingly long time."

* * *

**Omake:** Cooking

Jiraiya and Tsunade looked with no little doubt at the soup that had been set before them by nine grinning children. Maybe telling them that they all needed to cook once a month wasn't a good idea after all.

The soup was...black. Food was not supposed to be black, and there were those little bright green...things floating around in it.

"I saw it move. I swear I just saw it move," Jiraiya hissed, "I won't eat anything that moved!"

Tsunade looked at the faces of the children and stared at the food. They had all tried so hard on this, and they were looking at them with this hopeful look that made her want to do anything in her power not to disappoint them. She heard Jiraiya cursing under his breath and knew he had looked up at the kids too.

Curse them and their soft hearted stupidity.

"You don't like it," Haku sounded a little disappointed, "it's okay, we can make something else..."

"No!" Tsunade said, "This is fine."

Quickly, before she could think better of it, Tsunade took a bite along with Jiraiya.

"This is...the best tasting...disgusting looking thing I've ever eaten..." Jiraiya said.

Tsunade agreed.

The kids looked very happy with themselves and dashed off to get dessert. As they left, Shizune dashed in, holding Tonton.

"Tsunade-sama, someone's been raiding the bottom part of the pantry. I wouldn't have told you, but everything down there is at least a year expired!"

Tsunade looked over at Jiraiya, who looked over at her.

Without a word, she punched him.

* * *

_Yay! No more long battles where everyone is hiding their abilities! I was getting sick of the preliminaries..._

_Seriously, they last way too long...and I was really losing interest. Thank goodness it's over. This was probably the hardest section of this story that I've had to write, and I'm really glad that it's over._

_Additional Notes:_

_Matsuri's last name: I know that Matsuri doesn't actually have a last name, but I wanted to give her one. Mostly because it seems that almost every character from Suna doesn't have an actual last name. I find this rather...odd. We only get Gaara's title, but we never learn about anyones full name. While I'm sure that Suna would be a little paranoid, hiding the last names of minor families wouldn't be high on their paragitives. If you're interested, Ueda is a combination of two words that mean 'high' and 'rice patty'._

_Hinata: I'm using the traditional idea of a kunoichi as a basis for Hinata's fighting style. Traditional kunoichi were adept at poisons and seducing their targets rather than actual fighting. Now, naturally, Hinata's not going to be seducing people, but she's going to have some ability with poisons as well as her family's style. She's a surprising cold fighter. While she has the Tenshi Byakugan, Hinata's strength was never really in the kekkei genkai. Neji is going to adhere more to Hyuuga tradition, but he's going to be showing some interesting ablities sooner or later himself._

_Haku: This is the second time that I've done things from his point of view, but I really like him. He's a little less dark than Kimimaro, but he's also rather interesting. I get to know characters best via writing from their point of view..._

_Berserkers:In the ancient Norse world, berserkers were people who would go into an insane rage during a battle. There were known for tearing anything apart in their rages, unless killed quickly. They didn't even pay all that much attention to wounds. They were extremely dangerous and often were thought to be possessed by something. When the vikings were on a long voyage and the berserker felt battle rage growing in him, the ship had to land somewhere so he could uproot trees rather than dismember his comrades. I know that this isn't Eastern, but when Naruto was under the Kyuubi's influence, it reminded me of these stories._

_Translations_

_Soshoryuu_ –_ Twin Rising Dragons: Tenten attacks her opponent with weapons summoned from two small scrolls. When activated the two scrolls release smoke while also flying into the air in the shape of two dragons made of smoke. Tenten then rapidly throws the weapons as a powerful barrage. If the initial attack were to fail, she can control the discarded weapons with wires attached to her fingertips for a surprise attack. _

_Hakkesho Kaiten – Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin: This jutsu utilizes the Chakra control gained through Juuken training to release a huge amount of chakra from the user's chakra points right before being struck. The released chakra blocks any possible attack on the user. The user then spins rapidly to parry the attack, both creating a shield of chakra around themselves and tossing away any nearby attackers. This jutsu is only effective when rotating, since the chakra itself is not enough to stop a physical attack. If they cannot rotate, the user becomes vulnerable. _

_Dokugiri – Poison Mist Technique: Chakra is kneaded within the body and then changed into special chemical substances. It is then ejected through the mouth. When this substance comes in contact with the air outside the body, it instantly changes and is transformed into a mist of deadly poison. As this techniques combines ninjutsu, chemistry, and medical knowledge, using it requires chakra control and ability in medical ninjutsu. _

_Futon: Juuha Sho – Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm: A powerful jutsu that uses large amounts of wind nature chakra that can cut and slash through any material. Sora activates it by summoning chakra in his right hand, and then swipes a slicing chakra wave which appears to be controlled by Sora's will and thoughts. _

_Chakra Kyuin Jutsu – Charkra Absorption Technique: The Chakra Absorption Technique allows the user to absorb the physical and spiritual energy of an opponent. The user can absorb all of the opponent's chakra, causing death and also granting the user much more power. In the anime, it has been shown that stored-up energy can also be released in the form of a shock wave. _


	23. Part 2: Break

_Author's Corner: You know something I hate? Manga that goes on and on after it could have ended a long time ago. Thankfully, Naruto isn't really like that, but I've been reading a few manga where the manga really could have ended a hundred or so chapters ago, and it seems that the only reason that it's going on is that the mangaka doesn't have a clue how to end it and needs to make their house payments. Kind of like the Wheel of Time series. If you can ignore the three page description of a minor character's dress, it's readable, but the series really should have ended a long time ago. _

_On the manga: Blast it, Sasuke, go die in your 'eternal darkness' or whatever! Get over yourself, everyone's bored with your constant whining about how much you've suffered. Gaara...I forgot how much you totally rocked! And the Mizukage is great! Fourth great shinobi war!_

_On the anime: Sannin! I forgot how much I love the Sannin! And Madara's voice sounds pretty good...seriously...So this means that we're getting closer to the Sasuke-Itachi fight... While I love Itachi-sama, I want to see some of those flashbacks in the anime, but I hate seeing Jiraiya die..._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns no part of Naruto, but she'd happily steal anything that Viz owns from them if she could. As they seem to take pleasure in using the worst translations for anime and manga, possibly because they're still annoyed that manga is superior to Superman in plot and fanbase._

_As a random piece of trivia, did you know that Western comics are marketed in the same way that hard porn is? I don't remember where I read it, but that's what I read!_

_Thank you Ibby-kun (MegaB) for betaing for me!_

_The List of Dark Destruction:_

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**"It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself a revolutionary just to be a decent man."**__**  
- **__**David Harris**_

* * *

Tenten hadn't left her room since she had returned to her home that night. Her foster father hadn't really said a whole lot, but he had congratulated her on making it to the preliminaries. Kimura Isamu was not good at speaking to people, but he was a kind man to his foster daughter, who he believed was completely undeserving of the suspicions that even his wife seemed to harbor towards the girl.

She looked around the room now, at all the weapons and scrolls that littered it, and at the character for power that was painted over her bed above the intricate floral scroll work that was in her room. It was a room that usually she was very proud of, having both feminine and warlike aspects. Right now, she wished that she had been taken in by the baker.

Why did things have to be so complicated?

Tenten had joined for the specific reason of proving herself to be as worthy as any native-born Konoha ninja, but instead she proved that she was inferior to a foreign trained ninja. She was surprised that someone from Retirement hadn't showed up yet. Tenten had always wondered why she was even allowed to fight.

That boy's face and words continued to come back to her.

"_I wonder why you're so worried about the fact that I come from Kusa," Haru said conversationally as he whirled the staff towards her, "Could it be because you're not from Konoha?"_

_Tenten growled a little, "It's none of your business."_

"_It must have been difficult going to school after the Sandaime's assassination. People in Konoha don't seem to approve of taking in foreigners as much as they used to," Haru continued, "So you thought that by defeating me, a ninja from another village, you could prove that you were truly a Konoha nin."_

"_Shut up!" Tenten screamed, taking out a scroll and making a mace appear from it. She jumped to attack, hitting the staff that Haru had stolen as he blocked. Haru just looked slightly amused. He was calmly and systematically attacking her psychologically, and Tenten knew it._

_He had learned through his fights how psychology was a go four-fifths of any battle, and he was using it very effectively. What as worse ,was that Tenten knew it, but she couldn't help fall into it. He was voicing all of her fears and doubts._

_Tenten was wearing down._

"_It's funny, you're wearing the Konoha symbol on your head yet you don't feel like a Leaf nin," Haru said, "You know something else..."_

_At that point, Haru lunged forward, and struck with the staff, forcing Tenten back. For a moment they were close,he leaned forwards and whispered into her ear, "I can see that you don't even like what Konoha stands for now. So why pretend?"_

Tenten clenched her teeth and rolled over.

No, she didn't like it. She hated it. She didn't mind competition (actually she loved it) but this hatred for the other villages was completely unnecessary to her. There was no reason to hate her rivals. Yes, they were from enemy nations, but they were paid to fight for one thing and she was paid to fight for another, there were no feelings mixed up in business.

But that didn't even matter.

Tenten had always seen that it was not important if she actually liked them. She wanted to make her foster father proud and she wanted to prove that she wasn't a spy to her foster mother. She had wanted an opponent from Konoha so she could prove that she was just as good, if not better, than they were. Instead, she had been crushed by a foreigner.

"I guess now I don't have to worry about people being suspicious of me," Tenten mumbled to herself inside of her pillow, "They'll think that I'm too weak to be a spy. Beaten by a Kusa nin."

But those words wouldn't leave her mind.

She didn't even want to be like them. She thought that they were wrong.

Tenten wasn't one of them.

But what was she?

* * *

"We're as good as dead," Zaku said calmly.

The three Sound Genin were sitting in the hotel room assigned for them and contemplated their future. They had been invited to stay and watch the end of the Exams by a surly looking Chuunin who looked as if their presence was a personal offense against him, but the feelings of the natives really didn't mean anything to the Team 13. They were far more worried about what their boss was going to say about this failure.

"We weren't supposed to lose. At least not all of us," Kin groaned, "Dosu, I thought that you at least would win..."

Dosu, who hadn't been talking much since being almost killed by Sora, just shrugged.

"And you weren't all that useful," Kin rounded on Zaku, "You got owned so badly that it was pathetic."

"I'm sorry," Zaku shot back, "I could have sworn I saw you getting your butt handed to you by Blubber Boy."

"It was a draw, dani!" Kin snarled.

"I looked like a defeat to me, Hag!"

"Would you two shut up," Dosu finally exploded, "What are you, infants? When Orochimaru-sama gets here do you really want him to find you quarreling like that?"

"I don't see how it's going to matter," Zaku growled, "I mean, we're all dead anyways, so let's take this time to tell one another what we really think of one another. Starting with the wench."

"I'm not a wench, you flee," Kin nearly went for his throat.

"Orochimaru-sama will be pleased to see you in such high spirits," a cheerful voice said from the window.

All three Genin had already thrown a barrage of kunai that the newcomer deflected with ease. He was smiling at the fact that they had reacted, but his eyes remained cool.

"I'll leave out informing him that I could have killed all three of you right then, shall I?" the man said cheerfully, "But you do owe me a little bit of a favor now."

"We don't take orders from you, Kabuto," Dosu said coldly, "Orochimaru-sama might trust you, but to me you're nothing more than Konoha scum."

"But you do owe me," Kabuto sighed, "and I had come to tell you such good news."

All three of them looked at him in a very suspicious way.

"What's that?" Zaku finally asked.

"You're lives are secure for the moment. You're lucky that we decided to keep some prisoners alive," Kabuto's black eyes had gotten a strange, unreadable light to them, "You're next mission is simple, when the plan is set in motion, make sure that those grass Genin don't interfere too much. Either convince them to leave or use a frequency to knock them out."

"Why can't we kill them?" Dosu asked, it wasn't like Orochimaru to show mercy.

"I doubt that you could," Kabuto said calmly. "I don't know who they are, but I was able to see one of the groups attacking. They were no pushover. They might prove an inconvenience if they fight with Konoha, but they might prove useful if not harmed. If Kusa has three Genin teams like that in their ranks, we've been ignoring them for too long, and it would be best not to cross them anymore than we already have."

"Why do I get the feeling that you're not telling us the truth?" Kin asked, tilting her head to one side.

"Because, Kin-chan, you're paranoid," Kabuto smiled, "I'm never shown anything but loyalty to Orochimaru-sama. Now of course, if you refuse the mission, I'll be happy to tell him."

"We'll take your stinking mission," Dosu said, "But never forget, Oto doesn't trust you, Kabuto."

Kabuto shrugged, as if you say that it wasn't really his problem, and in an instant, he was gone.

"Was it just me, or was he smiling?" Zaku said.

"Man, I hate that guy," Kin whispered.

The arguments of a few moments ago were completely forgotten as the team complemented their escape from death and what Kabuto was really up to.

* * *

That night ended up with a party that had them up until almost three. Even Sakura was in higher spirits than before. She had ended up singing karaoke with the rest of them and trying hard not to laugh at Neji, who always claimed he was rapping but sounded more like he was reading scriptures, as he had his turn. Not that Haku wasn't tone deaf and Gaara would know a tune if it bit him. When they finally returned to the hotel, they found out that Temari and Kankuro had been having some fun too. Apparently, the other guests hadn't been amused since they were busy pleading with the owner not to be kicked out due to their fun. From what Naruto could hear it was something involving a puppet head hanging from a light fixture and some very loud music.

Everyone decided to sneak around them.

Naruto woke up the next morning feeling exhausted and like someone had stuffed his head with cotton.

That's what he got for staying up until all hours of the night.

Everyone else seemed to have fallen asleep where they had crashed. Everyone was sleeping in a row in the room, other than the girls, and Neji had somehow managed to get himself tied up and gagged by an ink snake. Apparently, he had kicked Sai too many times.

"Good morning, Haru," Naruto said brighting.

Neji said nothing due to the gag, but glared over at him.

"Hey, Hideaki," Naruto called to Sai, "Haru's giving me an evil look. Untie him."

Sai opened on eye and looked over at Neji.

"One more hour won't kill him," Sai mumbled, rolling over.

"But it might just kill you," Sasuke, who seemed to have woken up, said, looking at the look Neji was giving Sai.

"Very likely," Gaara agreed. He had been sitting on the balcony, but at the sound of the conversation hat decided to appear, "He's been muttering death threats against you for a while."

Sai sighed and loosened the snake. Neji glared at him and sat down a little way away without a word.

Naruto looked around to see that there was something right next to him. With a slightly sinking feeling, Naruto looked at it. It was a large book with what looked like two angry girls and a guy who looked rather pleased with himself for some reason. Naruto didn't need to look at the title to know what it was.

_Icha Icha Violence. _

Curse Jiraiya and his hobby.

It was at that opportune moment when Sakura and Hinata came in to see Naruto holding the book. Sakura's eyebrow raised, and Hinata gave him a look that showed how disappointed she was in him.

"T-this isn't mine!" Naruto said quickly, "I woke up, and it was next to me! I'm not a pervert!"

"Ero-sennin probably left it here last night when we were asleep," Kimimaro said from his very old position near the couch, "It's a good idea if you think about it. Who would look for anything in a piece of drivel like that."

"Besides, no one in their right mind would want to read it, so it's safe from most normal people," Gaara said, he had been traumatized by those books as a kid and hadn't ever really gotten over his hatred of them. Naruto was pretty sure that if he was given half a chance, he would have destroyed every copy in existence and fed them to Shukaku.

Sasuke came over and gave the book a very dubious look.

"Ero-sennin likes codes," he said, "does that mean we're going to have to decode it. Which means...someone...would have...to...read it..."

Sasuke trailed off, looking at the book with a very dubious expression.

"How about we draw straws?" Haku said.

"He's Taiki's master. Why doesn't Taiki do it?" Neji seemed to have forgiven Sai enough to enter the conversation.

"We could draw bones," Kimimaro suggested, "I wouldn't allow anyone to cheat."

"Other than yourself," Sasuke grumbled.

"I could do it," Sai volunteered, "he might have written something in a different ink."

"Yeah, but...do you want to be scarred for life?" Gaara said.

"It was placed next to Taiki..." Sakura finally said.

"Be brave, Taiki!" the others hissed.

Naruto slowly opened the book and did nothing to hide the relived look as a small piece of blank paper fell out. Naruto picked it up, and as he did he got a small paper cut from the edge. Naruto was a little surprised until he noticed that the edges were a little...to shiny. Razors... As Naruto's blood touched the paper, words appeared.

_Shippuu, _

_You thought that you were going to have to 'decode' that book didn't you? Haha! Unfortunately, that's not even _Icha Icha Violence. _It's a genjutsu. The real book is _How to Win Friends and Influence People_ Sorry, but you're going to have to wait until you're old enough to read it. She-who-must-be-obeyed would kill me. _

_I promise on all of your eighteenth birthdays, I'll give you all a complete signed set of my works!_

"Oh joy," Sasuke rolled his eyes.

_On to more important things. Tell Haka that his letter was right, and those people who he wanted to look into aren't what they seem. We can't find anything out, but I'm starting to look. At any rate, I'm pretty sure all of you know that I can't help you with any kind of training (not that most of you need it). My movements are being so carefully watched that it's hard to even sneeze with out it being written down. Of course I could evade being seen if I wanted, but it's better to know just where your enemy is. Tsunade's the same way. I've seen people following her into the bathroom..._

_While you're figuring out if you're going to train or not, I'm going to fill you in one some very interesting news: my old teammate might just be around somewhere. If you see him, __run. Hakumei, you are not prepared to face him yet.__ I'm keeping a watch for him, but other than the Sound village's participation, I haven't seen anything much. Keep your eyes open. Don't contact me unless it's with one of your summons._

_Stay sharp and use your current psycho teacher to the best of your abilities. He was once one of the best, and he knows a lot about fighting._

_Gama-sama_

"Gama-sama?" Hinata asked, looking over Naruto's shoulder, "He really should have used a better name. Anyone could figure that out."

"It's too obvious," Sai said, "No ROOT nin would make the connection. They would be looking for some hidden meaning."

"You're kidding," Sasuke said.

"No, I'm not," Sai shrugged, "By the way, can I have the book?"

"If you want it..." Naruto handed it to him.

Sai took it and put it in his bag. Naruto found himself thinking that Sai must enjoy being weird simply for its own sake.

"That's just sad...I kind of feel sorry for them," Sakura said, shaking her head.

She was in fairly good spirits after her defeat. Naruto suspected that it was more likely that she refused to feel upset. Kind of like how Gaara and himself refused to be upset that they both had a sadistic, insane youkai sealed inside of them. This wasn't something that he could help with, and it really would be best for Naruto to leave this alone. If she was able to be cheerful, than she would find whatever it was that she needed.

"So, we have one month to prepare for the finals," Sasuke changed the subject, apparently feeling that ROOT's weakness of not noticing the obvious wasn't worth much of a conversation, "Should we train together or separately?"

"The only thing I know is that I'm going to Ichiraku today," Naruto said, he was starting to think about something like...well breakfast.

"Ramen freak," Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Tomato freak," Naruto shot back, "Also, the owner is in with Kinen so it's a good idea for me to go there and see if there's any messages for us there."

"That's just an excuse," Sai laughed a little bit.

"It's a good one though," Haku pointed out, "And one that we can't fight with."

"Maybe we can have someone else go though," Neji had a kind of evil glint in his eyes.

"No!" Naruto cried in a very melodramatic voice, "How could you do that to me! Have I not always been a good, kind person?!"

"You owe me ten ryou," Neji pointed out.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Haku asked.

"I don't owe you ten ryou, I lent that to you two years ago as gambling money," Naruto huffed.

"Really?" Sai asked.

"Yeah!"

"I don't remember..." Neji said thoughtfully.

"Who would remember after two years?" Gaara asked, "Taiki...did you really expect anyone to remember?"

"Nope, anyways, let's get going," Naruto said, "Someone needs to find Honda-sensei and convince him to put up a good front training us. I'll go to see if there's anything waiting for us at Ichiraku. Emi, you, Hideaki and Ryou need to do surveillance. Just loiter around looking for gifts for someone or something. Masaru, stay away from the Uchiha clan. You're going to start a war. Everyone else, train with Honda-sensei if you can."

"Right," Was the general assent from the group. When Naruto gave orders, they were usually followed, even if grudgingly.

"But before we do that, what's up with you and that Tenten?" Naruto asked Neji.

Neji smirked a little.

"I noticed that she seemed to be trying a little _too_ hard to fit into this city. She was constantly spouting the garbage, but she seemed very...how shall I put it...strained. I learned about her past to see what was wrong, and I saw that she wasn't a Konoha-born nin. It made sense, I don't remember her in the early classes of the Academy. She's adopted, and judging by the way the Konoha acts now, it's not going to be easy to be adopted," Neji explained, still smirking a little bit, "There is a resentment in her mind that I intend to...use. She's smart, so I'm not really manipulating her, I'm just forcing her to think about things. If I'm right in my assumptions, than she'll aid us or at least stay out of our way."

"You know, Haru, people are portrayed as the antagonist for things like that," Haku pointed out.

"True, but in the end, she wants someone to say that she's right anyways," Neji told him.

"And how would you know that?" Sakura ask curiously, "Have you suddenly developed mind reading abilities without telling us about it?"

"If she hadn't been having the thoughts, my words would have had no effect on her," Neji said with a shrug, "On another topic, Masaru, what's up with you and the Uchihas? You do realize?"

Sasuke nodded.

"I know just what I did, and I don't care," Sasuke grumbled.

Sakura just shook her head.

Everyone was prepared to leave within fifteen minutes, and they left at different times. Naruto noticed that on the way down, Temari and Kankuro had managed to keep their rooms, but Matsuri seemed to be washing dishes. She looked very annoyed at life in general.

It was a rainy morning, and Naruto didn't see many people around at the hour. He did notice that Sai and Sasuke looked like they had gotten together and were playing a game that Naruto could only call 'sensei hunting'. Sai had even brought along some nets.

At Ichiraku, Naruto happily devoured three bowls of ramen before he was finally given a note along with the bill. It was a simple sentence, but it was clear enough.

_Lay low and wait._

Naruto wasn't expecting anything better, but he was still just a little disappointed.

He paid and looked around only to see a large square box beside him.

"A square box with eye holes doesn't exist," Naruto said, "Didn't I already tell you that?"

The box exploded into a very large puff of smoke.

"Just what I would expect from the man that I respect!" Konohamaru's voice yelled at least twice as loud as it should have been, but it started coughing almost immediately.

Naruto waved the smoke away from him and waited for the kid to be able to breath again. He had a bored look on his face, and deep down, Naruto was wondering just which god hated him so much that he would have to deal with this kid.

"Another free hint to being a ninja," Naruto offered as the smoke cleared, "Never use too much smoke. You don't want to be caught along with your enemies."

"I don't usually do this!" Konohamaru said indignantly.

"You don't use smoke bombs?" Naruto asked, "Don't make your own for a while."

"But all ninja make their own!" Konohamaru finally was visible, with his arms crossed.

Naruto rolled his eyes. No one made their own smoke bombs, just like no one made their own exploding tags, unless they had a good knowledge of how to do it or were suicidal. Hakumei got their bombs and tags from Tsunade and Shizune. They made them, but they were also experienced. Naruto was surprised that Konohamaru hadn't blown his head off or something.

"Just buy the stupid bombs!" Naruto was getting annoyed.

"I will not!"

"Will-No! I refuse to get into a fight with a kid!" Naruto seethed, "What do you want anyway?"

"Train me!"

"Did you figure out that jutsu I taught you?"

"Yeah, you want me to show you? Or-"

"NOT HERE, YOU IDIOT!" Naruto restrained himself from hitting him, knowing that he would get in real trouble. "Let's go to a training ground or something. Then you can show me your jutsu, and I'll decide if you've mastered it. A training ground without girls would be best."

"Yeah..." Konohamaru shuddered a little bit.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, getting up.

Konohamaru mumbled something and Naruto only caught the words 'scary girl' intermixed in the jumbled up mutterings. Naruto smirked a little bit, so he had learned the weakness of that jutsu. Yeah, it would pretty much take Jiraiya out of action, but it wouldn't do a thing for a woman, who would only get angry with you; in fact, a ninja's risk of dying increased when that jutsu was used around women. Ot at least that's what Naruto decided when he had accidentally done it around Jiraiya while Tsunade was walking by. That kick had almost killed him.

It was a good thing to learn early on. Rule number 1 about being a guy: Women always hit harder than enemies.

Naruto was led to one of the many public areas that was far enough from the ninja sector to make sure that Naruto didn't get arrested for spying, and there were also very few ninja that would be present in such a wooded area. That way, no one would even notice what they were doing, and neither of them really wanted to be caught.

"Alright, you appear to have mastered the beginning of that jutsu," Naruto nodded, at least it didn't look like a sludgy thing anymore...it was definitely a person... "Now all you have to do is make it look good. Do you have some girl in class you like? Anyone who made a real impression on you? Cute?"

"Well I guess you could say that. I saw a girl from my class, and it just kind of hit me," Konohamaru was muttering to himself.

Somehow Naruto got the feeling that Konohamaru wasn't talking about what he thought.

"Well, try to do some that look more like her, okay?" Naruto said, "Moving on. Do you know how to make a Bunshin?"

"That's boring!"

Naruto suppressed the urge to strangle the little monster.

"Konohamaru, I'm taken valuable training time to play with you. Either answer the question, or go away," He said between clenched teeth, suddenly Naruto understood just how Jiraiya must have felt sometimes dealing with him. Had he been this annoying?

Konohamaru glared at Naruto and muttered about wanting to know jutsu that did something. Naruto could sympathize with him, but not much.

As Konohamaru stood, trying to create a Bunshin with his face screwed up so that he looked like he was constipated, Naruto heard the sound of someone coming. He turned around to see three ROOT ninja looking at him.

"Taiki-san from Kusa?" one of them, with a smiling monkey face, said.

"Yeah?"

"You are under suspicion of entering the ninja section of Konoha. Please follow us,"

* * *

Haku read Isaribi's letter for the second time since he had actually had a chance to read it. She sounded happy enough. Most of it was just a long rendition of tests and medicine that she was taking, but there was an undertone of her happiness to at least be doing something about her...condition. She mentioned that Shizune was very kind to her, and that she was trying to help around the house as much as possible, but Shizune would only allow her into certain places.

Haku knew why.

Isaribi seemed to just be generally happy with her life at the moment, but one line of the letter still confused him a little.

_Shizune-san has been very busy lately, and I believe that I will be seeing you sooner than I think. I look forward to it._

What would Shizune be thinking to allow Isaribi out at the moment? She couldn't be healed yet, and even if she was, Isarabi shouldn't have been involved in a mission to Konoha that was essentially like going up to a hornet's nest with a large stick and smacking it to see what happened. There was no reason for Isarabi to be anywhere near them.

Haku wished that he had a chance to talk to Tsunade, but knew that even if he could, she wouldn't tell him. Unfortunately, when dealing with an operation this delicate, it was best that the people acting out the parts only knew so much of what was going on. They would focus on their orders, nothing more. That way, if they were captured, no one would ever know everything in the plan. It was an annoying system, but it worked.

Haku stood up and sighed a little. He was sitting on the roof of the hotel, which had a sort of courtyard for the guests to relax and enjoy the weather. Even though it was cloudy, Haku wasn't in the mood to be inside too much, or join in Sasuke and Sai's 'Honda Hunt'. While it sounded fun, Haku didn't really want to interact too much with the Missing Nin.

Haku shifted and decided to get up and maybe look around Konoha a little more. There were some sights that were close enough to the ninja district to be important that he wanted to look at again.

"Don't move, gaki," A voice hissed from under him.

Haku looked under the bench and was torn between laughing a little and just being disturbed.

Zabuza was hiding under him.

"Um...Honda-sensei," Haku said, tilting his head a little, "What's the point of this?"

"I don't want to be caught by your friends, what do you think?" the man growled.

"But...this is a little..."

"Ridiculous? Stupid?"

"Yes,"

"Deal with it. I'm not happy about it either," Zabuza snarled a little, "I either have to look stupid, or be forced into training those monsters."

"I don't see why you think that I'm going to help," Haku was getting more and more confused. Yes, he didn't get involved in these little games, but he would help them if they asked him. Kind of like he always helped Naruto with his pranks. Haku's loyalty was primarily with Hakumei at all times.

"I thought that you were one of the sane ones," Zabuza grumbled.

"What's insane about wanting to train?" Haku asked.

"Everything! When I was a kid, our team's sensei had to hog-tie me if he wanted me to train,"

"I'm surprised that you managed to survive Kiri's genin,"

"Life threatening situations do that. So long as you're sufficiently ruthless, you'll survive no matter what it takes."

"Even by killing your school mates?" Haku's eyes were slightly dead.

"Even by killing your school mates," Zabuza's eyes were completely dead, "Don't tell me you're so green that you've never killed for survival, and you call yourselves a team."

Haku felt a spark of anger ignite in him, "I had already killed by the age of eight," he said, "but I don't boast about it the way you do."

Zabuza eyed him again, this time with a more thoughtful look.

"You're a strange one," he said after a while, "You don't have the eyes of a killer."

Haku smiled a little bitterly, "You can't judge someone just by their eyes. Isarabi-chan didn't have it either did she? Yet you still made her your apprentice."

Zabuza looked away.

Haku smiled turned a little more normal. Zabuza was a little more complicated than he had originally thought he was. Maybe there was a chance that he would survive this whole thing with Hakumei's respect rather than their tolerance.

"I thought so. You're a surprisingly kind person, Honda-sensei, for someone who claims to have enjoyed the life in Kiri so much. I wonder what made you leave. Oh, I'm not asking, just wondering. Maybe one day, I'll learn just why."

"Kiri's a place that makes you do some crazy things," Zabuza said, but didn't elaborate.

He didn't have a chance due to the ink snake that had wrapped itself around his body and mouth. Haku looked down and saw. He stood up and looked at the two figures coming closer; they seemed to be being joined by others.

"Good luck, Honda-sensei," Haku said, "I am off to write my reply to Isaribi-chan's letter."

The only response was that of muffled cursing.

* * *

Sakura and Hinata chatted lightly as they walked with some groceries. Hinata had decided that she would work on her training later, and that it wasn't fair to force Sakura to have to cook dinner every night. Haku and Sai also failed, and they weren't doing it.

"So then we have to wonder what that Kakashi guy is hiding underneath that mask of his," Sakura was saying.

"I've wondered for a while myself," Hinata admitted.

"Of course Taiki started given everyone some really weird mental images," Sakura sighed, "It was as bad as Masaru talking in that monotone voice of his about the horrors that could befall the poor fool who opened the scroll without permission."

"All I had to put up with was Hideaki and his warped sense of humor. I hope he didn't get it from us..." Hinata admitted.

"I think he had it already. We just gave it a push," Sakura sighed.

Both of them turned a corner, still talking cheerfully when they turned a corner and almost walked into

someone. The person jumped back just as they stopped, narrowly avoiding a collision and spilling everything everywhere.

Hinata looked at the person that they had nearly run over and felt her heart skip a beat.

It was Hanabi.

It had been almost six years since she had seen her younger sister. Hanabi still had the calm appearance that she had had when she was only a toddler, and the way that she carried herself said that she was still important within the clan. Yet there was an almost downtrodden pride to her, and Hinata remembered just what Kinen had said about the Hyuuga clan having lost a lot of influence in Konoha.

"We're very sorry," Sakura, who didn't know Hanabi from any other nine-year-old, said, smiling a little, "We were talking, and we weren't looking where we were going."

Hinata fully expected a rude remark, but was surprised when Hanabi bowed a little, "Not at all, I was thinking about things and turned the corner too quickly. I hope that none of your food was dropped."

"No," Hinata smiled a little bit, "there's no harm done."

Hanabi met Hinata's eyes, and Hinata was very glad for the genjutsu. Even the Byakugan wouldn't be able to see under that genjutsu.

"I'm sorry, but I need to return home soon," Hanabi said, "My father will be expecting me home."

With that, she was gone. Sakura's eyes followed Hanabi, and she looked over at Hinata.

"She looks a lot like you did when you were nine," she remarked.

"I'm not surprised," Hinata said softly.

Sakura looked confused for a second but than her eyes widened a little bit.

"Oh," Was all that she said.

"Let's get going," Hinata said, her voice was still barely above a whisper, "We need to make dinner. It doesn't matter."

Sakura smiled at Hinata a little, and Hinata understood a little of how Sasuke had felt when he ran into his mother. It must have been extremely difficult for him to have faced her as a total stranger. Perhaps it was the fact that his own mother hadn't even recognized him that had caused him to formally break his connection to his family so easily. He hadn't felt any real connection to them anyways. Hinata wasn't sure how she felt right then, but it wasn't sorrow over the lost connection. It was more of a dull acceptance.

But she had been formally disowned along with Neji, and neither were permitted to use the Hyuuga name. Sasuke had split himself off, and Hinata wasn't sure that she would have been able to do such a thing.

* * *

Hyuuga Hanabi sped up as she walked. That run in had cost her precious time, but she was pleased with how she had handled the situation. She was sure that Hinata-onee-san would have done the same thing. Hinata had always been polite to people.

It was funny, but once she was gone, the four-year-old Hanabi realized that she had lost something important. Her father had completely retreated into whatever memories of his family when it was whole that he had, and was only seen when he was training her. It was almost as if Hinata, without anyone knowing, had become the glue that had kept everything together. Without her, her father had drifted away.

Neji's disappearance had meant something too. The Branch family, which had always been a potential problem, was now almost mutinous. It was probably only the Caged Bird Seal that actually keeping them from openly rebelling.

Hanabi herself missed her sister, and she had never stopped believing that Hinata was alive somewhere, and they she would come and see her one day along with Neji. It was a childish belief, but one that Hanabi privately indulged herself with. Until that time, she would act like as a proper heir when her family was around. With other people, she would try to show herself not only as a fighter but as a lady. Hinata would have wanted that.

However, being a lady didn't mean that she wasn't allowed to punish perverts.

The sound of running footsteps brought Hanabi out of her thoughts, and she turned around to see Konohamaru, the little pervert that had come to embody all that was disgusting in a boy, dashing towards her.

"Hanabi!" he yelled and waved his arms. He stopped in front of her, breathing hard, "Hanabi, you've got to help me."

"Don't talk to be so familiarly," Hanabi said, mentally cringing.

"I don't care about that right now," Konohamaru cried, "Taiki-nii-san's in big trouble!"

"Taiki...nii-san?" Hanabi repeated. She hadn't known that Konohamaru had had a brother. Everyone she knew had hinted that he was an only child.

"Yeah, Taiki-nii-san," Konohamaru nodded, "He was helping me with my training, and all these ANBU turned up and said that he was seen in the Ninja district. Hanabi, you live around the area that they said that they saw him in, did you see him?"

"Wait," Hanabi said, cutting through his somewhat difficult to understand explanation, "This Taiki person isn't a Ninja? And why would he be in trouble for being in the Ninja district?"

"Taiki-nii's a Kusa nin," Konohamaru told her, "He's coming for the exams. He's helping me with my techniques so that I can be a real ninja!"

If this Taiki person had helped Konohamaru learn that horror she had had to see, he must have been a pretty pathetic excuse for a ninja. Hanabi refrained from saying that and only said, "I didn't see anyone strange."

"Good, then you'll come with me," Konohamaru said, grabbing her arm and starting to drag her, "They didn't believe me when I said that he couldn't have been there, but they'll believe you!"

"Why should I help you?" Hanabi hissed, "You're just a nasty pervert!"

"Because I'll go on a date with you if you do!" Konohamaru flashed a grin and a thumbs up as he remembered Maitou Gai doing sometimes.

Hanabi seemed at a loss for words as she was dragged along by the local delinquent. There was only one thing going on in her mind.

She was going to kill him once her body started doing what her brain told it to again.

Konohamaru was a dead man walking.

* * *

Gaara sat on the roof of the hotel and took a bite out of his sandwich. He wasn't all that interested in stalking Zabuza for training, since really, there was no training that could help him to control Shukaku, and his sand would do anything that he told it to so long as it was physically possible. He noticed that there were no ROOT around; they seemed to have been called for something else. It bothered Gaara, but he didn't want to investigate too much.

Also, he didn't want to run into his siblings.

Gaara got the feeling that Temari knew who he was, although she wasn't going to tell anyone, but Kankuro might be different if he figured it out. Gaara had never actually spoken to his older brother, and he knew that Kankuro had seen him as a complete monster. It was really too bad. Gaara would have liked to have had a conversation with him.

Well, things could have been worse. He could not have run into Naruto and the others that day. Gaara's faith in a power of good was solidified because of that meeting. They had brought a light to him when he was in a darkness so deep that nothing else seemed to be able to touch him.

It was strange; Gaara didn't really remember all that much about his childhood before meeting the rest of Hakumei. It was a blur of misery and the dull ache of loneliness. He remembered the face his uncle, who had betrayed him, and he remembered the faces of his sibling, who had thought that he was a monster.

Really, Gaara was lucky. It would have been easy for him to have remained there until he sank into madness, and if any of the stories that the others told him were true, he had been about to go insane when they found him.

There was a sound of someone coming onto the roof and Gaara turned around to see Temari watching him. She really hadn't changed all that that much from his childhood. She was taller and more mature looking, but her face was the same, and her eyes were the same.

"Hello," Temari said, "I noticed you were here, and I wanted to apologize for any trouble that me and my brother caused last night."

She smirked a little as if daring him to ask what they were doing.

"We were out celebrating most of the time," Gaara said, "had we been in the room, they would have probably kicked us out with the noise that we were making."

Temari laughed a little.

"Good," She looked at him hard, "You look a lot like my younger brother."

"Really?" Gaara asked, not showing the worry that was gnawing on his stomach and Sandy Wandy's cries for blood, "what's he like?"

"He disappeared a long time ago. Most people in the village think that he died. I don't though," Temari smirked a little, "Gaara was a really tough kid. Nah, I think he lived. I'd have liked to see him again...and tell him...that I really do love him. If he was competing though, I'd want him to get out of the competition."

"Why's that?" Gaara asked, so, this was a message to him. He kept the smile at her other words hidden, focusing on the warning.

"Well, things are going to get a little nasty, you know," Temari grinned, "While I'm sure Gaara could have handled himself, I'd be worried about him."

Gaara nodded a little and smiled.

"I'm sure your brother would have been glad that you worried about him. He's lucky,"

"He's probably lucky that he ran off," Temari said thoughtfully, "We were pretty rough on him."

"Well, I hope you do well against the Nara kid," Gaara said, knowing the conversation was over.

"I'll crush him, and one day, I want to go after your annoying little friend," Temari said with an evil look, "I'm going to kill him!"

"Sadly, you're going to have to get in line. Everytime he meets someone he insults them," Gaara sighed, "I'm surprised that people don't fight over the right to kill him yet..."

Temari laughed and turned away.

"Ja ne!" She said, "Look forward to my fight."

Gaara watched his older sister leave with a smile that hid his thoughts. So, something was going to happen that she was involved in, and she didn't want him to be too involved for his own safety. Gaara sighed. This Chuunin Exam had so many sides and alliances that it was given him a headache.

Well, more of a headache than usual.

Gaara dissolved into sand as he decided to warn the others. Another hint, but Temari was a possible ally also. At least, she wasn't going to attack them willingly.

* * *

**Omake:** Shogi

Neji, who wasn't going to stalk Zabuza unless it was the only thing left for him to do, wandered down the civilian street and looked at the shops, considering birthday presents and hoping not the run into the strange green clad person who he had met a while back. He stopped to look at a very impressive looking shogi board when he felt someone looking at him.

Neji turned around to see the boy with the pineapple-like hair, Shikamaru or something like that, looking at him.

"You like Shogi?" he asked.

"Yes," Neji responded, "My friend and I play when we get the chance, but our board is old, and I was thinking of getting this as a birthday present or something."

"How good are you?" Shikamaru asked.

Neji raised an eyebrow, "Good enough."

"I'm bored, and I don't want to train today, but I have to have some kind of excuse not to train. You look the same," Shikamaru said, "It's a drag, but why don't we play each other?"

"Alright," Neji shrugged.

* * *

Nara Yoshino watched as her son ate his breakfast with more speed than she'd ever seen in his entire life, and all but run out the door. If he had been a little older, she would have said that he had a girlfriend, but he was twelve. She looked over at her husband, who was busy reading the paper.

"Shikaku, would you happen to know what our son is doing," Yoshino said, putting her hands on her hips, "It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you told him something about housework that he didn't need to know would it?"

Shikaki looked up from his paper at the sweetly smiling face of his wife and paled.

Shikamaru ran off to meet Neji for their morning Shogi match (he had been looking for a decent match in years), completely unaware of the horrible morning that he had given his father.

* * *

_And that's a wrap!_

_Sorry for the long wait, but I've got mini-courses this year in college, and it's taking a lot more time and work than I thought that it would. Then again, Spanish has always been my worst subject, and I have to take at least three semesters of it in order for me to get my degree._

_Once again, I'm truly sorry to everyone whose review I didn't reply to. I had a rash of tests, and I kind of lost track of everything. Gomen._

_On a happier note, happy pending Halloween, since I probably won't update before it, may you get all the candy that you've ever wanted, and may those who annoy you end up with tooth decay. (That's my friend's 'Halloween Blessing') And if you don't Trick or Treat, may few people come to your house so you can have more candy! And if you don't celebrate Halloween...may you still get lots of candy!_

_Isn't it nice to have a holiday where you don't have to think about the commercialism? _

_If you were at one of the Renaissance Fairs last weekend and saw a bored looking, very tall girl wearing a red and black high middle ages dress, a blue cape, and a red and black garland, hi! If not, you weren't missing a whole lot. It was freezing and I caught a cold, but I got to hear Cast in Bronze, who rocks. _

_Notes:_

_Youkai: A category non-human creatures of which some could take on a human appearance. Thanks to Viz and other groups like them, a lot of people mistranslate this as 'demon'. The word for demon in our sense of the word is closer to 'akuma'. The closest things in our culture to youkai are the fairies, and not the little people with the butterfly wings. Basically they're diminutive beings that can be good or evil depending on the story. Youkai range from the sometimes dangerous but usually just troublesome kitsune to the vicious but not very bright oni. Some take on animalish aspects and others look just like people. Now, evil youkai (evil=goes around eating people, destroying towns and generally causing trouble.) can be referred to as demons, but not all youkai are demons. Get it? As you can see, I really like folklore. _

_Tenten: Neji is an evil, evil guy. He basically is pointing out that she obviously is trying so hard because she doesn't really like what she's being told to believe, but she wants to be accepted. Neji's breaking down that desire. Haku's not the only evil one..._

_Hanabi: Another character who I usually see portrayed as something of an antagonist (if she's present to any great extent at all). I thought it would be interesting if she played a more important role in a story, even if it isn't a very big one. At least she's not a psycho out to get her poor unfortunate sister._

_The Omake: No, Shikamaru doesn't know Asuma. Shikamaru only met Asuma because Asuma was Shikamaru's sensei._

_Temari: I hope I keep her in character. I really like her, but she's a little difficult. Oddly enough, it's easier for me to write about psychos than normal people..._

_Translations: _

_Dani: Good for nothing or tick_


	24. Part 2: Allies

_Author's Corner: Another chapter! You guys are really the best. This chapter has been in my mind for a while now, so I hope it's good. Just to tell you, the Exams should begin next chapter. Be prepared for most of my little subplots in this arc to finally come to light. And, yes, Itachi is coming soon. _

_By the way, I've been reading some horror manga, and truthfully...I like it better than our stuff. There's not as much blood (which I think detracts from the whole thing) and the plot doesn't really revolve around someone running around killing indiscriminately._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns no part of Naruto though she invites the readers to consider that if she did, the main character might just be named Naruko, so it might be better off without her owning it._

_Random talking: Recently, I was bullied into reading the first of the Twilight Saga by a girl in my class. Um, um, I really don't want to sound mean, but I giggled through the whole thing. I know that these books were supposed to be very serious, but maybe I just read too much folklore or something. The sparkling vampire just had me laughing, and...What was with the baseball in the rain? So, sorry Twilight fans, there will be no fanfiction from me. If you like it, fine. I just don't get it._

_Thoughts on the anime: I both hate and love this part, and Karin, you have something of a brain. I'm so proud of you. Itachi-sama, you're my favorite character just because you seriously rock. I must admit it, you're the most interesting character I've seen in a long time, simply because everyone said you were bad, but you weren't, making you different from anyone else. Yes everyone, I think Itachi was cooler than Snape. Dumbledore was constantly saying Snape was good, so he had to be since Dumbledore was never wrong. No one ever even dreamed that Itachi wasn't a sadist. And his last words always make me cry..._

_Thoughts on the manga: Well, that was unexpected...THAT SWORD'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE! Um...Kisame...I'm starting to think of the theme from jaws...no wonder your name means 'demon shark'...and that was lame. Sakura...don't make me lose the good opinion I've gained of you... Sasuke...I just hate you. ITACHI-SAMA!!_

_Thanks as always to by wonderful beta Ibby (MegaB)_

_The Wonderous List of Listiness:_

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**To be a revolutionary you have to be a human being. You have to care about people who have no power."**_

_**-Jane Fonda**_

* * *

There were few things that could possibly be worse than this in Naruto's opinion. He was about to be tortured for information by one of the most infamous inquisitors in the ninja world, and there was nothing that he was going to be able to do about it.

Morino Ibiki stared at him, and since Naruto was between two ROOT ninja, he was feeling even more nervous. That didn't mean that he was going to show anything though. Naruto kept a look of total lack of understanding on his face and hoped that Ibiki couldn't read him too deeply.

"So, this is that Taiki person?" Ibiki said, looking him over, "Yes, I remember you. Bring him in."

The two ROOT nin starting moving, and Naruto, not wanting to be dragged or anything like that, started to walk with them through the door into Ibiki's...interrogation room.

It was a place that Naruto had once heard Jiraiya talking about when he spoke of the big people in Konoha in Hakumei's briefing before their mission. From the tone of Jiraiya's voice, Naruto had always expected the place to be a dark dungeon filled with screams and very large, dramatic looking torture equipment. What was really there was a large, plain room with a desk with two metal chairs facing each other across it. A single lamp was lit on the table, providing the only light in the room. There were no windows at all. While the room didn't look like a torture chamber, the plain white walls, lack of carpet and completely cut off aspect of the place gave Naruto a feeling of unease.

"Sit him down," Ibiki said in a bored voice, "And get lost. I don't want you two breathing down my neck, while I perform a delicate job."

Naruto was forced into one of the two seats, and noticed that the light was aimed so that it fell into his face in a very uncomfortable way.

"Shall we inform the Hokage of this?" One member in a smiling monkey mask asked.

"Don't bother," Ibiki barked, "You've been getting false reports about people turning up in places they shouldn't all day. Maybe you should bring in the people reporting it. This is a precaution and you know it. If you reported every rumor about someone sneaking around, the Hokage wouldn't be able to leave his office. I'll question the brat, and if the report's legit, I'll hand him over to you two. Until then, allow me to do my job in peace."

The two ROOT members bowed and left.

Naruto and Ibiki were alone in the room, and there was no one to help him. Slowly, Naruto took a deep breath and cleared his mind. Jiraiya had taught all of them just how to handle torture if they were ever put under it. Naruto slowly built up a memory of the celebration of the victory against Zabuza and prepared to dive into it.

"Hm, you look like you've been taught pretty well," Ibiki said, looking him over, "but if you answer my questions like a good boy, it won't be necessary."

Naruto looked at him, prepared to answer with the truth only if it was in his interest.

Ibiki smirked a little, as if reading his mind, "Alright, kid, were you in the ninja district this morning?"

"Nope," Naruto said, "I was in my hotel room, which all my teammates can verify, and I went to one of the ramen bars around here. Then I got rounded up by Konohamaru, who seems to want me to train him for some reason, and made to come with him. That's it."

Ibiki looked at him and smiled, it wasn't pleasant looking, "I'm going to tell you this only once. I have sent my team to track your whereabouts, and if you're lying, it's going to be even more unpleasant for you. It's only because you're from a village that's allied with us that you're getting any kind of investigation at all. If you were from one of the other villages, you'd be in a cell right now. If you are lying, the relationship will crumble, leading to an attack on Kusa. Are you sure you don't want to tell me anything?"

It appeared that Ibiki really, really liked psychological torture. It was usually considered to be much more effective and dangerous than normal kinds, and the victim would be more willing to tell the truth, rather than just what they thought that the torturer wanted to hear to make them stop. So that was why he didn't have equipment in this room. He probably had it from the tougher ones, but for most people, it wouldn't be needed.

This guy was hardcore.

"There is nothing that I've been hiding about where I've been going this morning," Naruto said, "If your investigation digs up something then it's a lie."

"You have guts kid, but I already knew that," Ibiki smirked, "After all, a _memory is never completely forgotten_."

Naruto forced his face to be blank, but it wasn't fooling Ibiki. If anything the guy just looked kind of amused. Apparently he was more used to seeing the innocent act than Naruto was used to giving it. He grinned a little.

"Kid, if I wasn't a part of Kinen, you and your little friends would be enjoying the view of our holding cells around now," Ibiki rolled his eyes, "I was one of the first people recruited, if I wasn't, there would have been no Kinen. They would have been arrested."

That made sense.

Naruto relaxed. Ibiki had a real point. It was actually pretty reasonable to think that Ibiki would have to be a member, and really, if he did know who he was, Ibiki wouldn't have come up with some kind of elaborate scheme. Naruto would have simply been arrested along with the rest of Hakumei. Possible executed on the spot.

"Alright," Naruto sighed, "I'll believe you. So what's up with this little arrest?"

"Someone, probably your opponent for the Exams or someone who supports him, wants you disqualified. Little does he know that he's the one who's going to get it for soiling Konoha's good reputation," The smile on Ibiki's face told Naruto not to ask too many questions, "This means that you're going to have to sit and wait like a good little boy while I fill out all the paper work that says that you had nothing to do with anything and are the victim of slander. While I'm out, send a message to your little friends too. They look like the type to storm the building if they find out that you're being held here."

That sounded like it would be more or less the truth.

"So is there anything that you want me to stay out of?" Naruto yawned.

Ibiki gave him a strange look, "There are plenty of places that Danzou would want you to stay out of," He gestured over towards the other door, "The prisoner's cell has cameras all over the place to watch the prisoner who is most interesting. Funny thing about that, all the cameras are being watched only by my special assistant: Anko."

With that Ibiki left, slamming the door behind him with a subtle show of annoyance that would be impossible to tell wasn't true. It looked like he was annoyed that he hadn't had a chance to torture Naruto into a drooling fit, and...maybe he was.

From what Naruto had seen of the man, he was both everything he seemed and nothing like it.

* * *

Sai was feeling rather cheerful as he wandered aimlessly around Konoha. He had helped Sasuke find Psycho-sensei, which was always fun to do, but the Missing Nin really couldn't do all much to help him. Actually he couldn't do anything.

This wasn't really a surprise to Sai. He knew perfectly well that no one would ever really be able to help him with his abilities. Sai was too specialized. Even when he had been in ROOT, Sai had had to train on his own.

ROOT.

That word brought back memories. Particularly now that he was back in Konoha. It was funny how little he knew about the actual city. He had been taught about its history and its system of government, but he had never actually walked around the city itself until that night. Sai smiled a little at the thought. He really had been lucky. Maybe his brother had left a kind of gift behind for him.

Sai turned a corner into a flower shop. Maybe he should buy some flowers for Sakura... She had lost and it was probably a blow to her...

Also, it would make Sasuke jealous.

Sai was pretty good at noticing the emotions of other people. He had seen how Hinata always pay special attention to what Naruto said and how Sasuke and Sakura had this strange little thing that would probably blossom into love. Ero-sensei had once said that Sai would probably be the best novelist of the group.

He was pretty sure that that wasn't a good thing, but still, he could guess relationships with other people.

Sasuke would inevitably get angry and glare and then buy Sakura some flowers himself. Sakura would grumble about how she didn't need them, and she would treasure them. She hated to show any kind of weakness for things like that, but Sai knew that she would love it.

With a smile Sai walked into the small shop. A bell tinkled overhead and the girl at the counter looked up.

It was a pretty nice flower shop. The place had a open, well lit feel, all the walls and shelves were covered in flowers. Some of them were already in arrangements and others were just in groups of their own kind. The sheer variety and color of the place was enough to make Sai stop and stare for a moment. Trying to appreciate everything.

"Hi, Welcome to the Yamanaka Flower Shop. How can I help you?" the voice of the girl broke Sai from his thoughts and he turned to face her.

It was Ino, the girl from the Chuunin Exams. She was reading what looked like a book on flowers, and when she recognized him, she smiled a little.

"Hello, Miss Gorgeous," Sai said, smiling brightly, "I didn't know that your family owned a flower shop."

Ino smiled a little bit, "It was my mom's idea. She wants us to do something that isn't killing people. How's your friend? The one who went up against Uchiha Yumi?"

"She's fine," Sai told her, "A little depressed that she won't be competing in the Exams. I was thinking of getting her something to cheer her up. Girls like flowers, and it might make Masaru get angry and think about her too."

"That's the guy who made a blood feud?" Ino asked, "To bad..."

"What?" Sai asked, not quite getting what she meant.

"Oh, nothing," Ino said with a smile, "Nothing at all. So, you're looking for something for your friend, hm...you want her to have courage to keep fighting, right, so that would mean you want some edelweiss...you're feelings are of friendship so jasmine...and some nice yellow poppies for success..."

As she spoke, Ino started to pick flowers out of the shelves and began to arrange them into a bouquet. She seemed to be enjoying herself a little, chatting about unimportant things. Sai noticed that while the shop seemed to be very high quality, there weren't any customers other them himself. Sai opened his mouth to ask way, but decided against it. While he usually lacked all tact, Sai knew a question that shouldn't be asked when it was staring him in the face.

"This looks really good," Sai said, though he had no real knowledge of flowers, and he had always kind of thought of them as weeds that were trying to look like they weren't. While some flowers were useful, most were just pretty and nothing more.

"Thanks, I enjoy doing this as a hobby, but I don't get to show people very often," Ino chatted happily, but then looked a little upset.

"Why's that?" Sai said, hoping to find out a little more about Konoha.

Ino sighed a little.

"My family doesn't support the Godaime, so a lot of people won't visit our shop. It's not that we need the money or anything, it's just tiring," Ino said, leaning on the desk, "I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but really, who are you going to tell? I kind of wish that Mom and Dad would just give in, it's not like it'll do any good. Defying the Godaime is like defying gravity. It's completely impossible."

Sai smiled a little, his false smile, "I'm sure you're right, but people try to defy gravity on occasion, no matter how foolish."

Ino looked at him a little suspiciously.

"Are you trying to get me to join a revolution or something?"

"Nope, I'm just imparting sage-like knowledge,"

"Where did you get this sage-like knowledge?"

"My friend's master is full of it,"

"...you're a little on the strange side, you know that right?"

"My friends say that all the time, Miss Gorgeous,"

Ino laughed, "Well, I'll forget you're trying to 'lure me to the dark side' if you forget about my moaning, and call me Miss Gorgeous in front of Uchiha Yumi. She's way too proud of her beauty for her own good."

"I'll come back and listen to you moan tomorrow if you want," Sai suggested. Ino seemed full of information about the feelings of the people, and that was very useful. As long as he was nice and pleasant, that would work, "I won't 'lure you to the dark side' if you don't want me to."

Ino smiled a little bit, and nodded, but was interrupted by the appearance of Shikamaru, the boy who had been one of Naruto's friends.

"Hey, Ino, has Neko-sensei been by?" he asked, "I thought I heard her say that she was going to find someone to train you even though you weren't in the Exams?"

Ino looked a little puzzled, twisting one short piece of hair that she still let hang down and shook her head.

"Nope, it's only been him," Ino motioned her head at Sai, "all morning. Do you think that she forgot?"

Shikamaru shrugged, "I don't have a clue. Oh, by the way, Hideaki, right? I saw your friend, Taiki walking with some of ROOT. Was he in the ninja sector or something?"

"Not to my knowledge," Sai said, still looking confused, but his mind was racing.

Could they have been found out? He had to find the others and tell them right away, and if rescuing Naruto meant blowing the mission, then Sai was perfectly happy to forget the whole thing. Sai had grown to see the others as everything. So long as all of them were alight, they'd think of something, and, to Sai, the lives of each of the members of Hakumei was worth a lot more than the village of Konoha. After all, what was Konoha to him but another village? He had no happy memories of the place. His first happy memories had been with Hakumei.

"I guess I should be going," Sai said with a smile, "See you, Miss Gorgeous, Pineapple."

Ino started to giggle as Sai walked off, and Shikamaru looked like he would have made a comeback if it wasn't so much trouble to think of one.

Sai wasn't paying any real attention to the two of them anymore; he had to find the others.

* * *

Sasuke looked at the giant sword with some disgust. Zabuza's monster might be nice if you could pick the thing up, but it was useless to him and pretty much every other normal human being in the entire world. Unless you were built like a horse.

"Hands off, brat," Zabuza snarled, "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to touch other people's things."

"No, I don't remember her saying any such thing," Sasuke growled, "Why do you have this monster. What's wrong with a katana or something?"

"Katanas are for samurai, bottom feeder," Zabuza said, glaring over at him, "And the good ones are expensive. This thing was made especially for me."

"It's going to be slower than a smaller sword," Sasuke pointed out.

"Yeah, but a smaller sword doesn't have as much of a chance of killing instantly," Zabuza smirked, "And she can kill a large number at the same time."

Sasuke wanted to say that few people would have the situation where they needed to basically kill a horse, but decided against it. Zabuza was supposed to be teaching him.

Sai had wandered off to do something that he hadn't specified, and Neji and Kimimaro were sparing with one another. Gaara was still off where ever it was that was high so that he could think, and Hinata and Sakura were probably doing whatever girls did in their free time. To tell the truth, Sasuke was slightly mystified by girls, particularly those two.

Truthfully, since the battle on the unfinished bridge, Sasuke had been thinking about having a sword of his own, yet it was impossible for him to train with one. He didn't own one for one thing, and Sasuke needed a master to teach him. Jiraiya barely knew how to even hold a sword right. His toads used swords, not him. Tsunade also wasn't a sword person. The others didn't need swords either; most of them were able to either make weapons for themselves or just didn't require such a thing. Sasuke was starting to think that. It seemed that Sasuke was either going to have to learn on his own or forget it. There was no way that he was going to separate just to find a master.

This set him to wondering just what was going to happen when they assassinated Danzou. Would they stay in Konoha or go off on their own? Sasuke was more in favor of going on their own, if only because he didn't know how to even talk to his mother and father, and he would like to see if he could find Itachi. None of them really had a reason to stay. Naruto had never been liked to begin with by most people, Sasuke didn't want to see his family, Hinata and Neji had been disowned, Sai was just an orphan, and Haku, Kimimaro and Gaara didn't even come from Konoha. The only one who had a reason to stay was Sakura, and there was a chance she would want to go too. After all, they didn't even know if her family was still there. While civilians almost never left a village, Sakura's family had been merchants. They might have moved their business to another location in Fire Country if only to be away from the memories.

While Sasuke knew that the others would go with him if he asked him, he wasn't sure that he wanted to. After all, they didn't even know why Itachi had left. All they knew was that he was a missing nin. He wasn't sure if he wanted to ask them to help him chase his older brother around the world.

"Hey, twig, don't blow a brain cell, you need all of the ones you have," Zabuza called.

Sasuke bit back the comment that Zabuza would know since he had lost all of his a long time ago, and turned to face the others. He would worry about Itachi later. It was always best to focus on the mission during the mission. Thinking about other things were just distractions. After all, he only had one month to figure out how best to not only defeat but to humiliate Uchiha Yumi.

It had taken every bit of self control that Sasuke had had not to kill her on the spot. How dare she, a false Uchiha who didn't even have the Sharingan, dare to even breathe on Sakura? The thought of it now made him want to go kill her, but that was jeopardize the mission, and then everyone would be annoyed at him. Also, he wanted to avenge the Sandaime too. Sasuke had always liked the old man.

"Masaru," Kimimaro said to Sasuke, breaking him out of his thoughts, "Have you noticed today that the ROOT nin seem to be following us?"

"Yeah," Sasuke grumbled, "I think it has to do with them wanting to spy on our techniques."

Sasuke had no problem with saying that allowed. After all, it was the truth, and if he got in trouble because of it, everyone was over sensitive.

"I'm for ignoring it," Neji said, "As long as we keep our best moves secret, there's no reason not to let them spy. After all, if we know who the spy is, we can feed them the kind of information we want."

"You really are evil," Kimimaro said calmly, taking a drink from the milk carton that he had brought with him, "But I wish you wouldn't state your plans were the people involved can probably hear you."

"It does kind of ruin the whole thing," Sasuke agreed, trying not to laugh. It was amazing how fast the mood could change; "Now they'll know you're keeping stuff from them."

"And they'll have to deal with it," Neji grumbled.

The conversation was interrupted by Sai's appearance.

He had been running, and his breath was coming out in sharp gasps. If that wasn't enough, he was looking worried. If Sai allowed any kind of emotion on his face, it was a sign that something really bad was going on.

"Masaru...Taiki...ROOT...questioning..." he gasped out, "Distracted...ink dog.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what Sai meant. Naruto had been found out, but they had time to plan since the ROOT nin watching them were busy chasing after one of Sai's animal drawings. That would give them some time to plan.

Sasuke turned around, his eyes cold and hard, suppressing the urge to activate the Sharingan. He would kill them all if Naruto was hurt.

While Sasuke knew perfectly well that Naruto could withstand torture, he was actually the best of them all at it, there was only so much that he could take, and Ibiki was considered to be the best. They were going to have to move very, very fast.

"Yuuma, find Shinta and the girls, Haru, get Ryou," Sasuke ordered.

Zabuza stepped back, looking a little interested. Sasuke wanted to snap at him. Yes, they were going to start the invasion early. Yes, their chances of failure just spiked. So what?

Sasuke's orders were interrupted by the poof that preceded a summon. Sasuke almost sighed when he saw Gamatatsu, Gamakichi's younger, dumber brother. Well, it was a good sign.

"Hi, Sasuke!" Gamatatsu said in this infuriatingly slow way, "Naruto-nii-san said that you were going to give me snacks!"

Sasuke covered the frog's mouth instantly, praying that the Root nin weren't close enough to hear.

"You idiot," he growled, "Do you want to get us killed? If you say our names again until this mission is over, you'll never get snacks again!"

That caught the toad's attention.

"No snacks!" Sasuke could hear the horror in the muffled protest.

"Dead men give no snacks," Kimimaro said in a philosophic tone, "Is your summoner ok?"

"N-S-He gave me a message..." Gamatatsu said proudly.

Sasuke leaned in a little along with Sai and Neji.

"Yes..." All three of them said.

"But I forgot it..."

Sasuke almost killed it. Why had Naruto summoned Gamatatsu of all toads? Couldn't he just have summoned one of the other ones? Calling this guy stupid would be an insult to stupid people...or toads.

"Was it a call for help?" Sai asked.

"...No..."

"Do you remember anything about it?" Neji asked.

"He said I could have snacks if I delivered it,"

"Is he alright?" Sasuke snapped.

"...he...didn't look sad..."

"Did he look upset...like he hadn't had any snacks for a long time?" Kimimaro asked.

Gamatastu looked horrified at the thought of not having snacks.

"He was smiling!" Gamatatsu said, "He said that he was fine and that you didn't need to do anything. He must have had snacks."

Sasuke bowed slightly to Kimimaro, "Thank you, O great bone-user, for sparing my poor brain from this stupidity anymore."

He tossed some candy at the little toad, who cheered a little and disappeared.

"Why does he even use that thing?" Sasuke snarled, "it's living proof that it's possible to live without a brain."

"Well, if you were a ROOT nin, it would drive you crazy," Sai said thoughtfully, "It's completely illogical, can't really understand threats, unless they involve snacks, doesn't fear anything, and can disappear if he's bored. It would be enough to give some members nightmares, if they had the imagination for one."

Sasuke grumbled some more, but deep down he was relieved. There was no way that anyone else could have sent that toad as a messenger. Naruto was fine. It had probably not been anywhere near as bad as they had thought. Well, they were all jumpy.

That wasn't going to stop him from murdering Naruto when he got back for worrying him.

* * *

Naruto had to admit, sneaking around the interrogation cells of Konoha wasn't the most brilliant idea that he had ever had. In fact, it was an idea that could have killed him if he was caught. So why was Ibiki saying that he should look around?

The place didn't look like much to write to baa-chan about. It was a long hallway that was well lit, and seemed to be mostly made of metal. Well, it would have been hard for anyone to get out of here, but Naruto had always had a more dank and dark place in mind when he thought of dungeons.

Maybe he watched too many Princess Fuuin movies.

Naruto whistled a little bit as he walked down the hall. There was no one there, as Ibiki had basically said, and he was feeling a little overly brave. Besides, he might as well give Anko something to entertain her.

"Would you shut up?" A woman's irritable voice asked, "Either put away the dying bird or put a cork in it."

Naruto turned around to face a cell with the door closed.

"Aren't you a little young to be doing this job?" the voice asked.

Naruto curiously looked in the barred window to see who it was. It sounded like a woman, and he had the feeling that this was the person who Ibiki had wanted him to talk to or at least to see for some reason.

Inside the small, well lit cell was a woman. Her blond hair was tied up into a single pigtail that fell down her back, allowing only a small tuft of hair at the end, rather like a lion's tail. Her clothes were dirty and a little torn, and she looked like she was about eighteen, maybe nineteen, and her black eyes were rather oddly shaped. Sort of like a cat's.

Naruto knew that he was looking at one of the Jinchuuriki like himself.

Jiraiya had long ago taught him how to recognize a Jinchuuriki, and one of the signs was a physical marking on the body, usually the face. Another was if his stomach grew hot as the fox strained to get out and fight with the other Bijuu. Apparently they all hated each other. This woman was one of them, but he had figured out yet how to tell which one it was.

The woman seemed to have realized what Naruto was because for a moment, a emotion that Naruto didn't recognize flashed into her face.

"So, did they bring you here to learn a lesson or something?" she asked, "What would happen if you put one little whisker out of line?"

"Nope, I'm not supposed to be here at all. The guy said that there was something that I should see, so here I am," Naruto admitted, "I didn't expect to meet you here. Why are you in here? I didn't think there was another one in Konoha."

"I'm not from Konoha, kid," The woman rolled her eyes, "My Hitai-aite was taken, but I'm from Kumo. My name's Nii Yugito."

"I'm Taiki,," Naruto said, hoping that he didn't sound too rude.

"Ah, one of _those_," Yugito smirked she was better at spotting liars than most people, "Well, I'm not in any position to sell you out. I'm just a prisoner of war, and for some reason, Mister Sadist seems to want to save me until after the Exams. I guess he really gets into the spirit of them or something."

It seemed that Yugito was willing to talk to him so long as he didn't ask nosy questions like the system of the government.

"So you're being held for ransom?" Naruto asked.

Yugito laughed at that, a cold unpleasant that showed a dark humor in the question.

"You must have some really good friends out there, kid, for you to assume that Jinchuuriki get treated like normal people." Yugito smirked, "We're weapons, kid. That's the reason we were born for. You were born so that you could hold a monster and protect a village that fears and hates you. The Raikage isn't going to waste his resources on a weapon that got captured. The only Jinchuuriki he cares about is his brother. And Bee's always trying to run away for some reason. I guess he's been talking to his Bijuu too long. Never a good thing."

"Bee?" Naruto asked.

"Killer Bee, he's got the hachibi," Yugito rolled her eyes, "He's annoying but useful."

She wasn't going to tell him anything else. Either she was still loyal to Kumo, or she thought that he was a plant to get information out of her. Or both, but now Naruto was worried. He knew perfectly well what happened when a prisoner of war wasn't ransomed back, at least in Danzou's Konoha.

Something of Naruto's thoughts must have entered his face, he was still bad at hiding that kind of thing, because Yugito nodded once, her eyes cold.

"Yep, I'm going to be executed once they've gotten what they want out of me. If you get seen talking to me, you're going to be in the same position."

Naruto, despite training, was an impetuous person, and his true nature took that moment to come roaring forth.

"No way!" he said, "Just you wait! I'll get you out of here, and you won't be executed if you come with me and my friends."

Yugito didn't look all that convinced.

"Great, kid, just great. You do that. I'll wait here," she rolled her eyes.

"What have you got to lose by trusting me?" Naruto asked angrily.

"Let's see, my sanity, my reputation, my life, my mind...little things like that..."

Naruto glared at her.

Yugito smirked at him, "I'll believe you when you come back with the keys to free me, kid, no time sooner."

"Alright, than just wait," Naruto said, "I promise that I'll get you out, but if I do, you have to help me and my friends."

"If you get me out of here, I'll swear loyalty to any group you want me to," Yugito said, "and you can call me on it."

"Agreed!"

* * *

Naruto was just being led out of the interrogation room to the waiting room, where he would wait until his release was signed when Konohamaru showed up with what appeared to be his reluctant girlfriend in tow.

She looked a great deal like Hinata and after a moment, he realized that this must be the sister that she sometimes mentioned, Hanabi. She didn't look to happy with the arrangement. She glared balefully over at him, and Naruto found himself feeling a little sorry for her. Konohamaru was hard to keep up with sometimes.

"Let Taiki-nii-san go!" Konohamaru yelled very loudly and dramatically.

Ibiki, who had been leading Naruto off, stared at him.

"What is this?" he asked Naruto.

"I told you I had been bullied into training a kid," Naruto sighed.

"Taiki-nii-san wasn't anywhere near the Ninja District, and I can prove it. Hanabi-chan was in the Ninja District and she didn't see him, and he was with me most of the morning!" he yelled.

Ibiki seemed to want to play along with them.

"So, Hyuuga-san, where were in you the Ninja District?" he asked, keeping himself from smirking.

Hanabi sighed, "I had a few errands that my father asked me to run. I was asked to go to a few weapon's stores, and replenish on bandages. I didn't see anyone who looked like him."

"But you didn't have the Byakugan activated during that time?" Ibiki asked.

"Of course not," Hanabi looked a little surprised, "Why would I do that?"

"Because you might have missed him. Since you could have, you're information is good, but not enough that I can just release him."

Konohmaru moaned and gave Naruto an apologetic look. Naruto was a little surprised that Konohamaru had come all this way to try to help him. Maybe he had underestimated the little snot.

"It's good for you that we've already investigated all of his motions this morning. He left the hotel, and was eating in a ramen shop at the time the report said, and since bunshin don't eat, it's safe to say it wasn't one."

Konohamaru gave a sigh of relief.

"It's a good thing we were there!" he said.

Hanabi stared at him.

"You idiot, didn't you hear what he just said? Your stupid testimony was next to worthless!"

"But he's going to be released!"

"That has nothing to do with you, you idiot!"

"But I was here!"

Naruto and Hanabi looked at one another, finally Hanabi spoke.

"You had nothing to do with this, did you?" she asked.

"Nope, he was like that when I met him,"

"Pity, I was hoping they blame you,"

Ibiki smirked as he watched; apparently this was the kind of thing that he saw as entertainment. Naruto never would have guessed that he was into comedy.

Konohamaru glowered at all of them.

"Just wait, Taiki-nii-san," he said, "I wasn't able to do much this time, but I'll save your guts one day!"

The way Konohamaru said that reminded him of another nine-year-old from a long time ago. This one had been just a little more stubborn than Konohamaru and had almost killed himself a number of times. Naruto grinned at Konohamaru.

"I bet one day, you'll be better than me, try for it."

* * *

When Naruto returned it was already dark. One whole day of training was wasted. He sighed and reached for the door, only for it to open and for Sasuke to grab him by the shirt and drag him in, closing the door quickly behind him. Naruto found himself sitting in the center of the room with everyone sitting around him, watching. Even Zabuza was nearby; polishing his sword for what was probably the seventeenth time. That guy was just weird.

"Talk or I'll kill you," Sasuke hissed, looking like he very well might do just that.

"I was kept late because the secretary, Yuki-san, didn't want to fill out the paper work for my release and give it to Danzou for a signature," Naruto explained.

"You attracted Danzou's attention!" Sasuke almost screamed.

"I didn't really want to, you know," Naruto deadpanned, "and Danzou was told that it was a mistake, throughly investigated and cleared up. The report was a slander from an unknown source. Ibiki thinks that it was Sora."

"Makes sense," Neji agreed.

"But what about Danzou?" Hinata asked, looking worried, "He's thinking about you now, isn't he?"

Naruto groaned a little bit, "Yeah...and it got worse...Konohamaru came and brought a friend, and they wanted to help free me. In the end, they just made things louder and more complicated, but on the bright side. It made everyone want to get rid of me as soon as possible."

"But Danzou's still thinking about you now," Sakura pointed out, "This could be really bad."

Naruto knew that she was right, but there was nothing that he could do about it. It wasn't his fault that Sora was a twit and had made Danzou actually have to think about him. He hadn't planned this out...but he supposed that that was the problem with plans: they always started to fall apart under too much pressure.

"Alright, we've said that we've been friends for a while, but if we say that we don't know where I came from, we can make it look like I'm the only spy in the group," Naruto said thoughtfully, "and this is only if we get caught. You all know how to handle torture, and the guy I went to is alright."

"But!"

"Don't worry about me," Naruto said, "and besides, this is a worst case scenario. Chances are Danzou doesn't see me as anything more than a Genin with a Bunshin fixation. I don't even think we're going to need it. I just can't be seen looking suspicious and sneaking around, but if worse comes to worse, make me look like the spy. They can't execute me until after the Exams anyways. Danzou has to get all the paperwork done for a trial, even a rigged one."

"True," Haku nodded, "We'll have to made do I guess."

"If this jeopardizes your life, I'm abandoning the mission," Kimimaro said in a flat voice.

"Hear, hear," was the general agreement.

"Oh, by the way, Ryou," Naruto looked at Haku, "You went looking around the place where we were looking for the preliminaries right? What did you see."

"A pair of Uchihas making small talk and dropping tantalizing hints," Haku sighed, the fact that he was using sarcasm showed that he was frustrated, "Other than them, I found a room with some cameras were they were recording our battles. It looks like Danzou wants to watch them again to see things better. Other than that, nothing of any real interest."

"So, Danzou's cautious," Gaara muttered, "I hope this doesn't come back and bite all of us."

"Well, he hasn't done anything, so he might suspect something, but not this," Sai reasoned.

"Let's hope it stays that way now that Taiki's caught too much attention," Sakura sighed, "Maybe we should report a bunch of other people and get them in trouble so that Taiki's doesn't look like it's anything special."

"Clever, but too hard to do," Neji pointed out, "We'd be the ones who got caught."

"Should we talk to Gama-sensei or She-who-must-be-obeyed?" Hinata asked.

"No, it'll just cause them trouble," Sasuke shook his head, "We don't even know if there's a real problem, or we're just being paranoid."

"I doesn't feel right to just lay low and hope it blows over," Neji muttered.

"But it seems to be the only thing that we can do," Naruto muttered. He hated to be this helpless. It made him feel like when he was a younger, watching the Sandaime kill, but being able to do nothing about it.

Sora had won this round.

* * *

**Omake:** Mistletoe

Nawaki stared at the fishing pole with mistletoe at the end that had been jammed into his hand by a grinning Jiraiya. He raised an eyebrow.

"And what am I supposed to do with this?" he asked the older boy.

Jiraiya grinned, "Just stand there. I asked Tsunade to meet me here, and guess what she's going to be standing over! My plan is flawless!"

"Classy."

There was a sound of footsteps and Jiraiya smoothed down his mane a little.

"Here she comes!" Jiraiya almost sand and whirled around the corner to see...Orochimaru.

For a moment the two just started at one another, and finally Nawaki spoke.

"Dude! You guys totally have to kiss now,"

Jiraiya took a step back. "Oh, no, you two can share this moment,"

Orochimaru's brain had finally rebooted to tell him just what kind of situation he found himself in, and he snatched the mistletoe off of the fishing rod, glaring at Jiraiya. Apparently, he was a little angry about being told that he had to kiss Jiraiya, another guy, in a public place with a bunch of girls looking on who were only going to get some kind of thrill out of the whole thing.

Particularly since none of them would have gone out with him anyways. He'd tried.

"This is the most ridiculous-" He started.

"Alright, Jiraiya, I'm here," came the annoyed voice of Tsunade, "What's this wonderful thing that you just had to show me?"

Orochimaru turned around to face Tsunade. He was still holding the mistletoe above his head, about to throw it away. For a moment the two stared at one another before they reacted.

"CURSES!" Jiraiya muttered, sulking in a corner as Nawaki watched with an interested face. "It's just not fair...he didn't even come up with this brilliant plan..."

Jiraiya never quite forgave Orochimaru for being Tsunade's first kiss. Even less since he was in a good mood for the next few missions. He never spoke of it again.

Tsunade never discussed it because she felt like the whole thing was just a stupid idea on Jiraiya's part, and there was no need to remember his half-baked schemes.

Orochimaru never mentioned it against since in his opinion it's kind of pathetic when the only time any girl ever willingly kissed you was because she was under mistletoe.

* * *

_Arg, I'm sorry everyone. I know that this is late (really late). I'm going to try to write a one shot as an apology. On the bright side, I will never be forced to look at another Spanish word again unless I want to. _

_This is the shortest chapter of this that I've written. I'll try not to repeat it._

_I really, really, really didn't like this chapter, but I didn't feel like there was anything else I could do with it. I had already been planning this for a while, but I think it dragged on and was more of a filler chapter than anyone else. Well, rejoice, all, for the Finals are here, and some mysteries are about to be resolved. Including: who wrote the note, what's up with Orochimaru, and where's Itachi. I know more of you are more interested in Itachi's whereabouts than anything else. Don't worry, I love him to!_

_Oh, and if you feel that Hakumei are making mistakes, they are. They're only twelve after all, and you can only expect twelve year olds to be able to do so much. They make a lot of mistakes. _

_Notes:_

_Reporting to Danzou: Danzou can't know every single thing that happens in the village. There are probably a good amount of small things that he never hears about. That's just how a government works, even an autocracy, which both the Konoha from the manga and anime and this version seem to be (judging by the amount of paperwork). If the Hokage had to deal with every little thing that happened personally, there would be so much paperwork that you could probably build a city out of it._

_Meditation: I read somewhere that it actually works against torture. I guess it's a kind of mind over matter thing, but you have to be trained to be able to do it. _

_Ibiki: Really, I think he would be the type to join something like Kinen. While he's a sadist, that just means to me that he's willing to do almost anything to preserve peace. Another thing, a interrogator would seem to me to need to be completely loyal to a regime, because he's dealing with so many secrets. A character like that might or might not actually support a war machine like the one that Danzou made, and judging from his character in the manga and the show, he actually would not be the type who would like Danzou's Konoha._

_Flowers: All of those meanings are from Hanakotoba, the Japanese language of flowers. It's a little different from the Victorian one. For one thing, some of the meanings are a little different, and for another some of the flowers, like the red spider lily, aren't in the Victorian book, if you want to, you can look it up on Wiki._

_Sai: Ok, he's kind of fun to write. He's really observant in a very strange way... Yes, I kind of discover characters through writing from their point of view, as strange as it may be. Poor Ino, though, she thinks he's flirting with her, and he just gathering information. Poor Sai, he doesn't know what he just did. This is a couple I now dub 'mistaken intentions' for the purposes of this story. Well, they'll straighten themselves out. Once Sai figures out what flirting is. _

_Zabuza's Sword: While I love anime, meaning I love unrealistic weapons, this has always been something that I've ended up giggling at. Judging by the size and thickness of this thing, it's got to weigh a lot. Most people couldn't have been able to pick the thing up let alone swing it. Then again I love fans with razor sharp edges, so I guess I shouldn't talk._

_Yugito: As I said in a previous chapter that I'm too lazy to look at at the moment, she's younger than she is in the manga. This is because the character I intend to pair her with is a little too young for her as she was. I'm looking forwards to this pairing. It's never been done since the last time I checked. All Yugito's pairings are usually with Naruto, which...is a little creepy when you think how in Shippuuden she's twenty-nine and he's fifteen/sixteen... Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with someone dating a guy a little younger, but after five years, I start getting a little nervous._

_The Raikage: While I admit he seems to like his little brother (most people do, deep down), I don't think that he'd been all that kind to the other Jinchuuriki. The impression that I've gotten from him is that he's stubborn and more than a little bigoted. Also, Killer Bee had to have a reason to want to run off...if it was mentioned, I didn't get it._

_Translations_

_Neko=cat. It can also be considered to mean something like 'vixen' in our language. Just as an interesting side note._

_Merry Christmas (Happy Hanukkah or whatever else you celebrate) and Happy New Year!_


	25. Part 2: Signal

_Author's Corner: I wrote back! I told you I would! _

_Ok, guys, I've gotten FANART! I'm about ready to dance around the computer. The links on my bio, so please go and compliment her wonderful job! Now, go to my profile, click the link, and leave her a nice comment!_

_Lately, I've gotten a few PMs telling me that I'm a little too hard on Sasuke. Honestly, I can't forgive him after everything that he's done, and whatever right he did have to angst has been abused to the point of my wanting to find a Death Note. I totally agree that Sasuke has suffered, but it doesn't justify his actions. A group of higher ups decided to use your brother to exterminate your clan and you're going to kill every man, women and child? Yes, he's suffered, yes, it's not fair, but so has pretty every other character on the show. He's not overly special, and you don't see most of the other people constantly moaning about how their lives mistreated them. Most of them have gotten over it at some point. Sorry, I just can't sympathize with him. Besides, his little 'you couldn't possibly understand how I feel' rant really just left me cold. What's even worse, I used to like him for a while in the first season. _

_I have to make a confession. I'm getting really bad at replying to people. I know, I'm lazy. Please forgive me or don't mind the fact that some of the replies are WAY late._

_Sorry again, feel free to chew on me..._

_Thoughts on the anime: Arg...filler...how I hate you apathy...kicking...in...must...resist...urge...not...to...update... he's fighting with a bubble pipe._

_Let me repeat that: he's fighting with a bubble pipe as a weapon. I'm speechless, and that's saying something. Also, I'm getting similar vibes as with Shion with this girl...I wonder if she asks Naruto to 'help' her... _

_Thoughts on the Manga: Wait for it..._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra own no part of Naruto or it's merchandise; however, she is attempting to prove that Kishimoto-sensei could have done other things to his manga, and it would still be brilliant._

_As always, thanks to MegaB (Ibby-kun) for his work as by Beta._

_The Return of the List:_

_Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki_

_Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru_

_Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta_

_Rasen no Neji-Haru_

_Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi_

_Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei_

_Hara no Haku-Ryou_

_Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki_

_Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma_

_**"It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell." **__**  
**__**-Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman **_

* * *

The sun hadn't even risen when the two figures approached. Both were almost impossible to distinguish in the darkness other than that one was tall, the other short, possibly his wife. It was too dark to see either their clothes or their faces. The morning mist swirled a little as they walked. Both walked with a determined and steady step, not like most travelers who were caught out after dark.

Finally, they reached their destination: Konoha.

The city was completely silent at that early hour, and the large imposing doors rose up through the mists to greet the two travelers. Neither seemed to intimidated by or even interested in the size or the atmosphere of the doors. They continued towards them with pausing or hesitating.

The doors were both firmly closed until at least six, when the late comers would come to get seats for the Chuunin Exam Finals. Both figures stopped right at the doors. The taller one leaned over and said something to the shorter who didn't seem to respond. For a moment, nothing happened, but then one of the doors opened slightly, and a young man with a tired and irritated face looked through the small crack and glowered at the two figures.

"I'm sorry, but you're going to have to wait until the doors officially..." The Uchiha on guard began, but he trailed off and slowly stepped aside as the two passed, neither so much as looking at him. Once they were both gone and out of sight along the roads, the guard shook his head and looked at the slightly opened door in a confused way.

"I sure hope no one gets wind of this..." he muttered, "sleeping on duty and the wind getting the door opened...Akira must not have locked it...Hokage-sama would have killed me for not noticing it. Good thing no one's come in..."

As he closed the door and locked it, the sun began the rise, slowly staining the clouds blood red.

The dawn had arrived.

* * *

Neji was the first to wake up. He opened one eye and looked around at the sleeping figures around him. No one even twitched. Heaving a small sigh, Neji sat up and crept out of the hotel room. They needed their sleep. Even Gaara had been knocked out so that he wouldn't lose control that day. Everything had been painstakingly prepared for. Even Zabuza had a place in the plan. Neji smirked at that thought. It was actually kind of funny in a sick way.

Everything was going perfectly.

Naturally Sasuke and he had both been nervous about that, but it seemed that their worries were being misplaced. There hadn't been anything to complain about. Even Naruto's little arrest had blown over without much of anything happening.

Neji was thinking about going to the ramen place that Naruto was always raving about for breakfast, just so that he could see what all the fuss was about. Secretly, Neji thought that the only reason he was so loyal to it was because the two had been decent to him. To Neji, all ramen tasted the same, other than the individual flavors.

Maybe it would be better not to talk about it.

Well, there were always other stores that were open at this time. He didn't worry about the others missing him. They would know where he was. That was the strange thing about them; they always had a good idea where everyone would be. Maybe they just knew each other too well.

The sun was just starting to rise as Neji walked down the all but deserted street. It was pleasant to walk around when no one was around other than the ever present ROOT members that just got on your nerves. At least he could half pretend that they weren't there. Neji could get something to eat and enjoy the peace and quiet.

"Hello, my eternal rival!"

Neji whirled around to see the green clad Rock Lee, dashing towards him and waving frantically at him. Lee dashed past him and ran backwards until he was right beside Neji, who was wishing that Lee had just kept running.

"Hello, Lee," Neji said, trying not to sound as unsure of the situation as he was.

"What are you doing on this youthful morning?" Lee asked, happily, "Gai-sensei told me that it was best to run one hundred times around Konoha for my training to be a ninja! Would you like to join me?"

_Youthful?_

"Um, I'd better not," Neji said, "I need to save my energy for the Finals, but...didn't you say that you weren't a ninja when we met?"

Maybe that would get him on another train of thought that didn't involve some seemingly impossible exercise routine that would probably kill him to try. Neji had been right. Lee's expression changed completely. He was suddenly much more serious. He looked around as if what he was saying was some kind of top level secret, and, from Neji's limited knowledge of the way things were now in Konoha, it might have been.

"No, I'm not officially a ninja," Lee nodded, "Please, Haru, as my eternal rival, you have to keep this a secret. Promise me that should you tell, you will lose the spring of your youth!"

"...I promise..." Neji muttered, promising himself to tell the others about this guy the second that he could. Naruto would get a kick out of it.

Lee nodded, as if that ridiculous vow was more than enough to convince him that Neji wouldn't tell anyone. Maybe to him it was.

"I was not permitted to be a shinobi because I cannot properly channel Chakra," Lee began, "Because of this the Chuunin teachers would not accept me, but that did not deter me, my eternal rival! In secret I continued to train everyday in hopes that I could pass the Genin Exam despite my handicap, yet no Chuunin would even stop to see if I was worthy. Then, three years ago, I was training alone, when Gai-sensei found me!"

"Gai-sensei?" Neji asked, remembering a Gai from Kinen.

"He is amazing, Haru!" Lee's eyes almost had stars in them as he spoke, "He came up to me and asked me why I wasn't at class, and I said that I wasn't allowed. He was furious and promised that he would help to train me personally until I was acknowledged! If I was not a genius by birth, he would make me into a genius of Hard Work!"

Lee struck up a pose and gave Neji the thumbs up, with his teeth actually flashing at him.

"Don't worry my eternal rival! One day we shall fight together and celebrate the glory of our Youth!"

Neji blinked, realizing that he was supposed to say something to that story.

"So that would mean that you specialize in taijutsu," Neji said thoughtfully, Kimimaro would slaughter him, "With such a focus on it, I'm sure that you're better than most would be. You could say that I specialize in taijutsu as well."

Also, Gai, as he remembered, was one of the most talented taijustu specialists in the world. If he had taken an interest in Lee, then Lee must have been a more talented person than Neji gave him credit for. He would have to actually take him seriously if they went up against one another. That was, unless Lee would join Gai in Kinen. That, from the sound of how Lee obviously practically worshiped Gai, was a real possibility.

Lee's eyes were practically burning up as he looked at Neji, "Yosh! I have decided to become the great taijustu specialist in Konoha! If you too are a taijustu specialist, then the fact that we are eternal rivals was truly meant to be!"

This sounded a little disgusting for Neji, and he started to think up a way to get out of this very strange situation.

"Well, I guess I'll go for my breakfast. You enjoy your...run..."

"Yosh! The flames of youth burn brightly in both of us! Until next time, my eternal rival!" Lee called before dashing off.

Neji watched him go, not saying anything and resumed his walk. Neji didn't remember much about Konoha. He had only been seven when they left, but something told him that Lee's story would have been different. There was no reason why someone who had special needs would be denied training. The only thing that came into Neji's mind was a factory that was producing ninja as quickly as it could for some reason that he could only speculate on.

But a factory would have identical products, and ninja couldn't be identical. Ninja had to be what people expected least. Predictable ninja got killed. Lee had had the potential to be extremely unpredictable, almost as much as Naruto, the world's most unpredictable person.

So, Konoha wasn't going to waste the time that it would take to make strong ninja, each with their own skills and weaknesses, it was going to create a mass of trained fighters. That meant that Konoha didn't care if you got killed. It was sort of like how Sai had described ROOT, where you don't even have a name. While too much individualism might lead to anarchy, not enough led to...a true machine.

So, this was why Gai had joined. Because he saw that Danzou saw people's lives as expendable. He saw people like shogi pieces, if a sacrifice was needed, he would do it, and Gai was, while apparently weirder then fiction, not a person who seemed to want to see the death of others.

A genius of hard work eh? Neji thought with a small smile. He supposed he was going to see soon just what someone like that was even capable of. After all...

This was the day that they made their gamble.

Neji made it to a small restaurant that sold some meat buns that he kind of liked a long time ago. He had once gone there with his father. Neji blinked at that thought. It was strange, at one time, all Neji had thought about was his father and how he was going to avenge him. Somewhere in the past years, his memories had calmed down. Yes, Neji missed his father, and he still harbored a grudge against his uncle for what he had done, but it wasn't the most important thing anymore.

His father would have wanted him not to spend his life in bitterness, but to surpass the Main family. Neji was no longer a caged bird, both he and his cousin had left their cages a long, long time ago.

"Fancy seeing you here," a tired, irritated voice said.

Neji looked up to see Tenten, and made a gesture for her to sit down. She remained standing. Neji shrugged and took a bite out of his meat bun.

"Ohayo, Tenten-san," Neji said, sounding disinterested, "if you don't want to sit down, fine, but don't stand there glaring over me as if I've committing some kind of crime by eating this meat bun."

Tenten grumbled and sat down across from him, looking like she wasn't really sure why she was even doing this.

"I hope that I didn't injure you too much in the fight," Neji said, and, realizing that this probably would sound arrogant to her, added, "though you look like you could handle more than I gave you."

Tenten looked at him skeptically.

"You really think that I'm a good fighter? As good as any guy you've fought?" she asked.

"You're better than some and worse than others," Neji shrugged, "If I called you the best I've fought I would be lying to make you feel better, but you're far from the weakest. If you adapted your style, you would be very formidable."

"What do you mean 'adapted my style'?" Tenten asked, this didn't seem to be the answer that she was looking for, "Why did I lose to you?"

"Your fighting style is made to fight against an opponent who, like most short range fighters, doesn't have much defense against long range attacks, but if you go against someone who is also long range or who had developed a defense against long range attacks, you will lose," Neji said taking another bite, "The reason that I defeated you was because I know a jutsu that will protect me from flying projectile weapons."

"But my stepmother says that using an elemental jutsu is cheating..." Tenten muttered, than, probably realizing that that sounded kind of foolish, she blushed and looked away.

"Then enforce your weapons with Chakra," Neji said, "A weapon with some kind of power behind them will usually go through a jutsu that was done under the idea that it's just a normal weapon. Rather like what the famous female of the Sannin, Tsunade, does. Reinforcing her punches with Chakra to get more power."

Tenten gave him a very suspicious look.

"Why would you help me?" she asked.

Neji shrugged, "It's a suggestion. Take it or leave it, but I'll tell you this: the way you are, you couldn't hope to beat anyone on my team."

Tenten stiffened and glared at Neji.

"I promise you, Haru, I'll surpass you," she said calmly.

"Than do so, I'll wait for you," Neji smiled a little; "I'll look forward to our rematch."

* * *

Naruto woke up only to narrowly avoid being clubbed to death by Zabuza's sword. He rolled back and jumped to his feet, two kunai in hand already.

"What was that for?!" Naruto almost yelled.

"Wake up call," Zabuza seemed to be in a cheerful mood, "This is my last day playing nursemaid to you brats so I decided to celebrate!"

"By killing me?" Naruto asked, looking around to see if the others had survived the experience.

Kimimaro was sitting on the couch, cracking his bones and smiling at Zabuza. That would mean that Zabuza tried but almost was impaled. Haku was looking unhappy and gave Naruto a rueful look. That meant that Haku had gotten surprised and created an ice mirror. Gaara looked just fine. Well, Zabuza wouldn't have been dumb enough to try...right? Hinata and Sakura were also just fine, though looking annoyed. What was it with girls and special treatment? Sasuke was smirking and polishing a kunai. He probably had been waiting for it. Naruto cursed him and all light sleepers. Sai was looking just as annoyed and shocked as Naruto. He had probably thrown a kunai or two, but this wasn't a situation that he was best at. Neji wasn't there at all. He had probably left before Zabuza could do the honors.

"If you couldn't dodge it then you deserved to die," Zabuza shrugged.

Naruto wished that he could kill him right there.

The door opened after a moment and Neji walked in. He looked around at everyone's faces, and an annoyed expression appeared on his face.

"I missed something amusing didn't I?" he asked.

"Only Honda-sensei trying to kill us," Hinata sighed, "Well, kill the boys."

Neji sighed a little.

"I always miss the best parts," he grumbled, "I would have liked to see Masaru flip out. By the way, Taiki, I'd better see some action this time."

"Don't worry," Naruto said, turning to face all of them, "We're all going to see action today. We all know our jobs, there's no need to brief ourselves again. Everyone, do your best, and remember, no matter what happens today: If things get too crazy, get out. We're not that good.

"He who fights and runs away lives to see the light of day," Sasuke recited, "We know, mother."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "So, what are we waiting for," he said with a grin, "Let's get moving! We have a war to win!"

* * *

The village of Konoha had basically shut down for the exams.

Every single shop was closed as the villagers prepared to see the festivities. As most people in the village weren't ninja, it was probably the only time that some of them even saw the people who the village was built to house. Much to most school children's annoyance, the Academy was still in session, but it seemed that a great deal of children 'were sick' and had to go to the Exams in order to feel better. This was the one event where this kind of behavior was even tolerated. It seemed that Danzou had a good idea of how far he could push people.

Naruto found himself on the balcony overlooking the whole scene as the crowds starting to file in. The upper seats were reserved for the more respected VIPs and from that point the level of importance continued lower and lower in the stadium until if you were extremely unimportant, you might just get killed by a stray kunai.

His eyes scanned the crowd, looking for familiar faces. There was Anko, she looked annoyed about something, possibly her boyfriend couldn't come. He got a glimpse of Hayate, looking sick as usual, with the purple haired woman that Naruto didn't know. He noticed his old landlady, looking older and a little less hateful than she used to. Then again, she wasn't looking at him, so it was hard to tell. It was mostly people that he didn't know, or might have known a long time ago but didn't remember.

At last, he saw the two he was looking for.

Jiraiya and Tsunade were walking up the stairs towards the VIP section of the seats, close to where the Hokage was supposed to sit. Jiraiya looked like he was talking animatedly to Tsunade, who was ignoring him completely. One of Jiraiya's hands went around Tsunade's waist and she abruptly smacked him, sending him sprawling down some stairs, he stood up, a picture of hurt innocence, and ran up the stairs yelling something at Tsunade.

Good, everything was going smoothly.

In the last mouth, there hadn't been a lot of communication between them other than one or two letters updating them on the more important parts of the plan. They hadn't talked at all to Kakashi or the other members. After all, contact would have been seen as strange and even summons might be found out eventually, especially with the wild card of Orochimaru running around loose.

The only teacher they had had was Zabuza, and he was only interested in getting through this so that he never had to see any of them again, yet even he seemed a little different. Naruto was starting to think that he had a very strange, sick way of showing affection. It usually involved trying to kill them with his giant sword. Maybe that was why only strong people could be around him.

There was some movement, and Naruto turned to see Shino and Yumi. Shino bowed a little to the group, but Yumi didn't so much as blink. For all purposes she was going to act like none of them were even there. Naruto understood why Sasuke wanted to beat her so badly. She embodied every bad trait of Sasuke's entire clan and magnified it. What was worse was she wasn't even a real Uchiha.

"Ohayo, everyone," Shino said, looking around. "Good luck on all your fights."

"Ohayo," and "hn" were the general responses from everyone.

Temari and Kankuro, who hadn't even looked up when they arrived, both made noises and turned away to face the arena. They hadn't been talking all that much since they had arrived. Everyone who was supposed to be there was there. Sora was glowering over at Naruto, who was making a show of ignoring him. Kiyoko was sitting in an absolutely masculine way, glowering at anyone and everyone. What was that girl's problem?

Suddenly there was a burst of noise as fireworks were let off to know that the Exams were beginning. Really this was more of a sporting event than anything else. There were even people walking up and down the stands with food and drinks for the spectators.

There was a poof of smoke and the man who seemed to always have a stick in his mouth, Gemma or something like that, appeared. No, it was Genma. He was looking around at the crowds in a bored kind of way.

"Welcome everyone to the Exams, participants, come down and show yourselves to the viewers," Genma called, still chewing on his stick.

There was a rush of movement as everyone left the balcony that they were using and trooped down the stairs, into the center of the dirt arena.

It was the first time in Naruto's life that he had ever stood in front of such a crowd, and as he heard the cheers of excitement, he vowed to himself that he would be here again. It was a rush of excitement that caused his head to grow light. For a child who had been ignored when he was younger, this was heaven. Yes, he had people now, but this was different. This was...amazing.

"You're getting into this," Sasuke hissed to him.

"We're going to be back here one day, all of us," Naruto hissed back, "and then, they're only going to be cheering for us."

"Still striving for acknowledgement, eh?" Sasuke sounded amused, "I think I'll help you with that. Just try to make sure that they're chanting your name more than mine."

"I don't think that I could get the girls to stop," Naruto grinned, looking over at a group of teenage girls who seemed to be busily creating a makeshift sign showing their support for Sasuke, "Aw, look, you attract older women too, just like-"

"I thought we agreed to never mention that again. It was a complete mistake on his part, he even apologized. It was dark, he was drunk, and we were hiding out there anyways."

Naruto grinned.

"You two talk too much," Kimimaro muttered, "but I have to admit, this is pretty interesting..."

"Just don't do anything weird," Neji muttered.

"I only do things like that for my opponents," Kimimaro smirked, "It's tiring to do things like that anyways."

Everyone exchanged looks that doubted that he wouldn't have pulled out his spine if he had thought that he could get away with it. A whole arena squealing in horror and disgust would have been perfectly in his character to try to create.

"The rules of the Exam are simple: you will fight one another in one on one matches. Victory will be determined by who is made unable to continue first. However, just because you win or lose the tournament does not guarantee that you will or will not become Chuunin. You will be judged, not on your fighting ability, but by if and how you exhibit the proper attitude of a Chuunin. Victory will only guarantee that the judges will have more time to see you, which may raise your chances," Genma explained.

"So that would mean that everyone here could end up a Chuunin," Hinata said thoughtfully.

"It also means that no one could," Kiyoko grumbled and cursed a little.

"She's a bright ray of sunshine," Kimimaro muttered to Neji, who shrugged.

"There's one in every group," he said.

"Therefore, you will all be facing off against your predetermined opponents, beginning at when the Hokage and Kazekage give the word,"

Naruto looked up at the high balcony that he assumed was where the two leaders would sit. They were empty at the moment, but he could see motion that told him that they were about to appear.

"And two leaders have appeared," Genma smirked as both robed figures stepped into view.

Gaara looked up at the figure of the Kazekage with a dead face. Naruto realized that it was the first time in years that he had even seen his father. What was he thinking? Was he happy to see him? Angry? With Gaara's poker face, it was hard to tell, but Naruto had to guess that it was some kind of mix of both of them.

Danzou's face as he looked at the small group was completely unreadable, his eyes locked on to each of them in turn, none for a significant amount of time, and then both of them sat down. The crowd went wild at what was apparently the signal to begin.

"The first match is Uchiha Yumi of Konoha against Masaru, an orphan from Kusa. Everyone else, clear the arena!" Genma announced to the crowd, "The rules of the individual matches are simple: you fight until the other surrenders, cannot fight anymore or is dead. All weapons and strategies are permitted and there is no time limit."

Naruto trudged forwards, looking back at the smirking Sasuke. He seemed confident. Well, he had been working hard to come up with a way to defeat her using speed and only some of his more or less unattached attacks, but Yumi had nothing to hide.

He hoped that Sasuke's confidence wasn't arrogance.

* * *

As everyone else walked off the arena, Sasuke's eyes stayed focused on Yumi. This was it. This was what he had been dreaming of for a month and training like mad for.

It was time for Sakura to get her revenge.

"Are you prepared, Kusa nin?" Yumi asked, "You have time to surrender."

"I wouldn't surrender if my life depended on it," Sasuke shot back.

"That's a shame for you, because it does," Yumi looked at him dead on, "I intend to kill you, Kusa nin. You annoy me, and you have no respect for your betters. I intend to show your village just what becomes of such an arrogant child with no clan and no name."

"I don't intend to kill you, Uchiha Yumi," Sasuke hissed, "I intend to let you live with the shame of losing to a boy with no clan."

"Then let us begin," Yumi said her whip in her hands, "and see just who is the greater."

"Down, children," Gemna said calmly, "Breath for a moment. While I can see you're both looking forwards to this, torturing isn't allowed."

"But you said that everything was allowed," Yumi pointed out.

"Those are the official rules. I don't get a thrill out of twelve year olds torturing one another, so I'm going to stop the fight. Hokage-sama won't care, and most of the VIPs have wives and children who they don't want to introduce to the idea of torture just yet."

"Weakling," Yumi snarled.

Sasuke shrugged. "Fine with me,"

"Alright, you two, you can start trying to murder each other on my command," Genma said, "One, two,"

He spat out his toothpick between the two, and both sprang into action to the roar of the crowds.

Sasuke wasn't going to hesitate in speed. He had accidentally shown it during the preliminaries out of anger, and he was going to use that to his best advantage. Sasuke matched Haku in terms of speed, quite a feat, and with speed on his side, he could manage to win without resorting to more powerful, and traceable attacks.

Sasuke dashed to the side, with Yumi mirroring his actions, throwing a barrage of kunai that was returned by Yumi deflecting to the side. He caught some kind of movement out of the corner of his eyes and jumped back quickly to avoid the path of the tip of Yumi's whip.

"Ah, I see you remember my Kinzoku Shihai no Jutsu," Yumi said, "I'm glad you managed to avoid it. It'll make this entire fight much more fun."

Sasuke smirked but didn't say anything.

He had been training to avoid that technique since Sakura mentioned that there were drugs in it. The last thing that he needed was some kind of hallucinogenic to make him start saying things that he shouldn't. He had enough of a handicap already trying to defeat the little witch without using handseals or any of his better attacks or even the Sharingan.

Still, he didn't need those things, Sasuke dashed on the attack again, avoiding the whip and trying to get close to her.

All techniques had a flaw, just as all kekkei genkai had some sort of flaw to them. Kimimaro had to drink a tremendous amount of milk, Haku was always cold, Hinata had little offensive power, Neji had a blind spot, the Sharingan couldn't copy certain techniques. Somewhere, Yumi's metal techniques had to have some kind of flaw.

And he was going to find the weakness of her technique.

* * *

Dosu tried to keep himself from cringing under the cold, even stare of Kabuto.

"I thought that you were going to get them disqualified," Kabuto said softly, "I left the job up to you, but all you did was make a rumor that one of them had been in the shinobi district? Orochimaru-sama wanted them out of the way. He wasn't interested in causing their execution."

Kin shrugged, "I don't see why they're so important to Orochimaru-sama," she grumbled.

"Because they have exhibited power, and Orochimaru-sama is always interested in those who have power," Kabuto smiled cheerfully.

"So he means to recruit them," Dosu said thoughtfully, "Had we gotten them disqualified, Orochimaru-sama would have approached them. I see..."

"You have one chance to redeem yourselves," Kabuto told the trio, "and that is to convince them to help us when the invasion begins. There is no love lost between Kusa and Konoha, and that might work to your advantage. Thankfully, you've reigned yourselves in so that you haven't said anything too offensive to them, so maybe you can save your lives."

Zaku snarled at Kabuto a little bit, "And just what are you doing, Kabuto?" he asked, "I haven't seen you helping much."

"I've been talking to one of our contacts in Konoha, making sure that there was nothing that could go wrong in our plan," Kabuto smiled at them, "After all, as an assistant medic, there are only a few places that I'm allowed to go, though I do get to see everyone's medical record."

Dosu sighed, they didn't really have a choice. If they didn't they'd be killed. Orochimaru didn't take kindly to failures. They had already failed in the Exam. Even if they hadn't really mattered in the plan, they had been there to make it seem that Oto wasn't really involved until the very end. Now, people were wondering if they had purposefully dropped out.

"Hai, Kabuto-san," Dosu said.

Kin and Zaku folded their arms but didn't say anything.

"Have fun talking to the ones who lost," Kabuto said, his face was both pleasant and bored, "and good luck."

With poof of smoke, Kabuto vanished.

Dosu looked at the other two, who were looking nervous. Kin was playing with her hair and Zaku was shifting from foot to foot. They had every reason to be upset. This was their last chance. Granted, the last scheme hadn't been the most inspired in the world, but if they failed again, they were going to die.

"Well, what are you two looking at?" Dosu said, his voice betraying his tiredness, "we have losers to convert."

* * *

The old woman looked like she was likely to die at any given moment and was only being held together by determination. Her face, though wrinkled and worn, gave the appearance that she had once been very pretty, and though she was slower than she had been, her muscles had not atrophied as much as most people her age. Her clothing was typical of a citizen from Wind Country, but she was traveling alone while most people seemed to like to move around in a pack for some reason. She walked slowly past the gate, ignoring the guard.

The young man wasn't quite sure how to handle this situation. Yes, he had been taught that everyone was a possible threat, but this woman might just die if he was too sharp with her, causing a scandal.

"Ano..." he said, coming up behind her, "I need your passport."

The woman stopped and stared at him as if she had never seen anything like him in her long life. Then she blinked and started to laugh, a cackling, unpleasant sound that nonetheless had probably once been attractive.

"I was just pretending to be senile!" she crowed, and dug in her robes for a passport and handed it to him. While he gazed at it suspiciously, she gazed at him suspiciously.

"You remind me of someone..." she mumbled to herself, "Uchiwa...Ushiha...Uchiha...Ryuu...Ryuuki...yes, Uchiha Ryuuki..."

"Hm?" the young man looked up, "You knew my grandfather? He was a pretty big hero after..." he looked at her and blinked than coughed, "Move along, Chiyo-ba-san."

"Don't treat me like some old lady," Chiyo grumbled, walking past him into the city, grumbling the entire way.

She wasn't supposed to be there. The Kazekage had given her and her brother specific orders not to turn up, but Chiyo seldom listened to orders anymore. She was retired, and there wasn't a whole lot that the Kazekage could do other than throw a fit. The citizens respected her more than they respected him anyways, and she was still deadly, even if she was a little shower now.

This was the first time that Chiyo had ever actually seen Konoha. It was a pleasant looking place; one wouldn't have thought it was the seat for one of the most power hungry men in the world with all the vendors and civilians running around.

Chiyo remembered Danzou. She hadn't ever fought that man, but she had heard the rumors. Everyone had, but this place was almost peaceful. If it wasn't for the fireworks showing the beginning of the Exam and the guard, Chiyo might have thought that she had accidentally gone to a civilian city.

That wasn't going to last.

Chiyo hadn't come here out of her grudge, she was simply here to see what was going to happen. It was idle curiosity. And of course because the Kazekage wasn't himself. Making that alliance with a former Konoha nin to destroy Konoha. There was really something wrong with the man.

It was strange that she was standing in the heart of the nation that had killed her children and destroyed her grandson and wasn't attacking. She didn't really feel anything aside from the fact that it was a warm day and her nose itched a little.

She supposed that age did bring wisdom.

Besides, these children here were not the ones responsible for the crimes of Konoha, and if she attacked, she would just perpetuate the cycle. Chiyo didn't want to create a generation of children like Sasori.

* * *

Mikage Satoshi wasn't a very good ninja. He was always passed over for promotions and his love life was somewhere close to being comparable with a sedated parakeet. While he worked hard, Suna had a tendency to sneer at him. He had been a Chuunin longer than any other of the ninja and nearly everyone either ignored him or was 'nice' to him.

No one was more surprised than he was when he was told that he was going to be the one to give the signal for the invasion to begin.

Satoshi was beyond himself with joy. This was his chance to prove to all of them what his worth was. This was the chance for him to shine! He watched the battle before him with only passing interest. The Kusa boy and the Uchiha girl were currently involved in a mixed battle of psychological mumbo jumbo, kunai, and whips. It really wasn't that interesting since neither of them were actually using jutsu. What was with these two?

Anyways, he shook his head and looked for the signal. The guy who was supposed to make the move wasn't there.

Wasn't he late?

Satoshi was starting to get worried. The signal was a simple movement, just a fall from the thirteenth step on the thirteenth staircase. Maybe he had been told wrong. Maybe he had made a mistake. Maybe they had decided to use someone else.

Now he was worried. All this second guessing was making him sure that he would give the signal no matter who fell. After all, what were the chances anyways? As he watched, a girl or boy, it was hard to tell at this distance, tripped and fell.

That was it! That was the signal!

Relief flooded over Satoshi as he put his hands together to form the jutsu that would begin everything. He didn't bother to notice the pink haired girl who had come to help up the boy or that there was no one with pink hair in either Suna or Oto.

As he watched the feathers slowly wafting down to the unsuspected audience, he smiled.

Everything was going according to plan.

Or so he thought.

* * *

Sakura pulled Haku up a smiled at him.

"I've never seen you so light on your feet," she joked.

"I guess it has to happen to everyone at least once, and there was a boy's toy truck there." Haku sighed, looking embarrassed.

"Well, we need to get to the top," Sakura said cheerfully, "That's where the best view is!"

It was also where the signal was supposed to come from. Sakura was starting to feel excited for the first time since she was there. She was getting a kind of weird _thrill_ out of the fact that everything was going to work. It was exciting and a little scary. Secretly, she was already trying to think of just what she was going to explain to her parents about her absence. It was something that she was kind of frightened of, but looking forwards to. At the same time, it would mean that she would be separated from the group, but maybe...well all the rest were basically orphans...maybe her parents would allow it?

Probably not.

Sakura remembered her mother and father. While they might have allowed Sasuke, Hinata, and Neji to live with them and tolerated Kimimaro, Haku and Sai, there was no way on this earth that they would tolerate Gaara or Naruto. Sakura could still remember the day she saw Naruto crying and her mother had dragged her daughter away from the boy that she was seriously considering running up to and giving a hug. No, Naruto and Gaara were Jinchuriki and until they proved themselves, they were hated.

"Are you alright, Emi?" Haku asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sakura smiled, "I was just thinking about after the Exams..."

"It's best not to worry about that until we're past them," Haku said, looking at the figures of Sasuke and Yumi, "We still have a long way to go..."

"You worry too much,"

"You can never worry too much,"

"Tsunade with the kitchen sink,"

"Good point,"

It was only then that Sakura noticed the feathers and the fact that there were people falling asleep around her. Her eyes widened, and without a word, she grabbed Haku's hand and ran up to the roof, taking the steps two at a time.

Sai was waiting for them, for once looking worried at their sudden appearance.

"You're a little early. Did Taiki..?" he trailed off looking at their faces.

"Do you have the thing?" Sakura asked, "We don't have time anymore. We're setting it off now."

"We were supposed to do it after the first fight," Sai reminded her, looking confused.

"Someone else is starting something, we have to give the signal!" Sakura almost screamed, "It doesn't matter if it isn't in the plan. Those feathers aren't in the plan either! Why are you even fighting about this, you idiot!"

"Ok," Haku said before Sakura lost what little control remained over her and started to murder Sai, "Let's go."

Sai took out the firework that he had stolen that morning, and Sakura lit the fuse. All three watched the firework go up and at the blast, Sakura yelled "Kai!" undoing the genjutsu that hid their Hakumei uniforms.

It had begun.

* * *

Sasuke was panting a little, ignoring the wound on his shoulder from a kunai that he hadn't dodged in time. Yumi was panting a little too, her ponytail was lose and she was starting to look annoyed that Sasuke wasn't as easily defeated as Sakura had been.

"You're better than I expected," Sasuke panted.

"Strange, I was going to say the same about you," Yumi said, "I really want to kill you now."

Both were off again, and Yumi's whip was behind Sasuke struck him in the back. There was an explosion of smoke and Yumi was staring at a log with a tag on it. Yumi whirled around, but Sasuke was charging for her, kunai in hand.

Yumi blocked with two kunai, but Sasuke sent a kick that connected.

"Kinzoku Kawa no Jutsu!" Yumi gasped.

What looked like a sheet of metal wrapped around her and large spikes shot out. Sasuke barely managed to jump away to keep from being impaled, but he was still wounded by one of the spikes.

He clutched his side and felt wet blood. Cursing, Sasuke took out four more kunai and waited for Yumi to reveal herself again.

When the metal went down, Yumi smirked over at Sasuke. Her hair had fallen down, and Sasuke noticed that she looked a good deal older with it like that. The high ponytail had made her look younger for some reason. Sasuke shook his head in confusion. He was thinking ridiculous things.

"You're good," Yumi admitted. "Better than I thought. I wasn't going to use one of those attacks on you, but now I see that I have to. Rejoice, Kusa-nin. You're about to see the greatest weapon of the Uchiha clan."

Sasuke didn't look impressed. How was she going to pull this off?

Yumi blinked and Sasuke almost gasped. Her eyes were crimson in them were three swirling marks.

"The Sharingan," Sasuke muttered. Had she had a transplant? But then wouldn't it be like Kakashi's? How was this possible?!

"Yes," Yumi smiled, "Did you think because I was a woman that I hadn't activated it?"

Uchiha Yumi...too old...not right...Sharingan...

Sasuke's eyes widened

He knew!

It was then that Sasuke noticed the feathers. There were hundreds of them floating down around him, and from the signs in the stands (Sasuke hadn't taken his eyes off of Yumi) there was some kind of genjutsu involved.

This hadn't been the original plan.

Then the explosion went off.

Sasuke wasted no time worrying about the feathers or the fact that the signal was early. He threw down the flash bomb that had been in his pouch and undid the genjutsu. It was funny how much better it felt to know that everyone in the world could see his uniform. He wasn't Masaru, the cynical orphan from Kusa anymore. He was Arashi no Sasuke, the second in command of Hakumei, and anyone who doubted that would burn. The Sharingan activated behind the mask, Sasuke prepared for a true assault.

"Katon: Hoenka!" Sasuke yelled, jumping up in the air and sending at least three huge fireballs hurling towards Yumi.

She dodged and Sasuke landed, his hands in another pattern.

"I think that it's time that we stopped pretending, shouldn't we, Uchiha Yumi-oujo-san?"

* * *

The firework caused everyone who wasn't asleep yet to look up, and Naruto, Hinata, Gaara, Kimimaro, and Neji, all with their genjutsu undone, jumped out of the box along with everyone else. Naruto noticed that Kiyoko was suddenly taking a flute from under her shirt (gross) and was dashing off with a group of people who seemed to be waiting for her. Temari and Kankuro were both already gone with Gaara in hot pursuit.

"Haka, after then," Naruto yelled.

Kimimaro nodded and jumped off in the direction of Kiyoko.

Hinata and Neji knew where they had to be, and Gaara seemed intent on his mission. Shino wasn't anywhere to be seen. Crud. Naruto landed on the roof and looked around. He had his own job to do after all.

"Yo, Loser!"

Naruto sighed and turned to face Sora, and his eyes widened. Sora was outlined in red, and the Kyuubi's Chakra inside of him started to feel sick.

It looked like he was going to have to be a little late.

* * *

The explosion hadn't even finished when Jiraiya and Tsunade started moving. Both of them dashed past the VIPs with ease, ignoring the AMBU and heading straight for Danzou, who hadn't even moved yet. Both of them had kunai's ready.

Unfortunately, so did the Kazekage.

No one could have been able to tell just who stabbed the figure first. One moment, the Hokage was standing with the Kazekage besides him, and the next he was on the floor with three people standing over him. Jiraiya stared at the Kazekage, who looked evenly back...with slightly peeling skin...and snakelike yellow eyes...

"Orochimaru," Tsunade hissed, her eyes narrow.

Orochimaru said nothing, but he pulled off the remains of the mask and smiled at the two, licking his lips.

There was a popping sound, and all three of them looked down with horror at the body of Uchiha Fugaku. They had completely forgotten about each other.

"What-" Orochimaru started, but was cut off by a war cry from the large group of ninja masquerading as civilians attacked.

The battle that would go down in ninja history as the Chuunin War had begun.

* * *

**Omake:** A Moment of Understanding.

Haku sighed as he slid into the hot spring, his eyes closed. After a long day of traveling, this was probably the most welcome feeling in the world. The rest of Hakumei were resting or eating in other rooms, and at the moment, it was just Haku. Oh, the bliss of just being able to basically float in the water without anyone around.

"Um, excuse me," an unfamiliar male voice said, and Haku opened his eyes to see a naked man smiling benevolently at him.

"Miss, you and your friend must have gotten confused, this is the men's bath," he chuckled.

It just wasn't fair.

Wait, friend?

Haku turned around to see a blond man with delicate features glowering at the man. Both of them seemed to have noticed the word 'friend' and looked at one another at the same time.

A rare moment of complete understanding passed between them, and finally, the man spoke.

"Do you think that having our hair long makes it better or worse?" he asked.

"Probably better," Haku sighed, "I cut my hair once...it was awful...they all thought I was a sporty girl..."

"...I'm so sorry..." the blonde man said with a small shudder.

Both young men shared a look of total commiseration, and the man who had spoken first looked between the two and slowly began to realize his mistake.

Suffice it to say that Haku and Deidara had become fast friends and long after the meeting, they would both remember that they were not alone in the lonely road of being men who were prettier than most women.

It was a pleasant thought.

* * *

_Alright, the Exam arc is over. This is the beginning of my Invasion Arc. I'm thinking it will last about two to three chapters. A lot is about to happen, and a lot of information is about to be revealed. It's time to tell Yumi's secret, what's up with Orochimaru, Shino's allegiance, and just what Oto is doing._

_Notes:_

_Lee: Congratulate me, for that is the hardest character that I've ever had to write. Lee's personality is so extreme that he kind of disarms me a little. He's incredibly optimistic, but not like Naruto or some of the other more optimistic characters. Not that I dislike him or anything. Writing such an extreme character isn't something that I get to do a lot. Really, he's a character that will only appear in manga since most publishers or editors will think that a character like him is just too unrealistic. I hope that I've done him justice._

_Chuunin Exam opening: It's a little different than the one in the anime and manga, but that makes sense right? _

_Yumi: Someone mentioned that she was something of a Mary Sue. I sure hope not. I thought Mary Sue's were protagonist characters... I mean, I hate Yumi as much I hate most Mary Sue's but I don't consider her to be one. For one thing, she's not a self insert and for another, she's there simply because there is a lack of serious female antagonists, and I wanted someone who everyone would hate._

_Tenten: As I' m sure a lot of you know, Tenten's dream is to surpass Tsunade or at least become as good as her. While I really like her, from what little I see of her, I think that she is one of the most underdeveloped of all the Naruto characters. This is shown in her fighting style too. Tenten relies almost completely on her projectile weapons or hand to hand combat. That's fine to a degree, but when she was faced off against Temari, she proved herself to be unable to fight an opponate like that. Why didn't she adapt?_

_Translations:_

_Kinzoku Kawa no Jutsu – Metal Spike Technique: A sheet of metal surrounds the user and spikes shoot up from it, impaling anyone nearby. Excellent for close range defense. (Original Jutsu)_

_Katon: Hoenka – Flame Release: Fire Flower: The user jumps in the air and shoots multiple Gokakyu no Jutsu from above, so that it appears to be a meteor shower. (This was used in one of the games. I don't actually play them, so I can't remember which one.)_

_Review!_

_Pryotra_


	26. Part 2: Invasion

_Author's Corner: Ok, I'm not going to bore you all with my long winded chatter. Hi! This is the next chapter, obviously, and we're going to have some fun. As a recap, we have three separate groups, all with their own agenda, and I've just let them accidentally clash. Also, all three groups are actually pretty clever. Sounds like fun, huh? _

_All will be revealed in this and the next few chapters. Or, at least, all that I think needs to be revealed..._

_Oh, and due to a little bit of misunderstanding, I did not create Sora. I would have never created a character like Sora. I consider Sora one of the most annoying, angsty, characters in the show simply because he reminds me of some kind of self insert character. Sora is from one of the filler arcs. He's not a really memorable character, but I do not want to be in any way connected with him. If I have to come up with an antagonist, I really hope to be better than Sora._

_I also did not create Isaribi. While I wouldn't be so upset about that, she's another filler character. I really like using them because I feel that pairing characters with OCs isn't always a good idea. In fact, I really don't like to do it. Maybe it's just my own experience, but every time that I've read a story where an OC became prominent, the quality of the story decreased. Therefore, I avoid the use of those characters unless they're an antagonist. I have no interest in anyone liking or sympathizing with Yumi._

_Also, Oujo-sama is a word that is kind of the same as 'lady'. It's not aunt, that's Oba-san. Not to be confused with Obaa-san, which is grandmother. I know this because I was thinking briefly of making my niece call me aunt in Japanese, but I decided against it pretty fast._

_I'm really sorry for ranting. _

_Thoughts on the Manga: I knew it! So, the dark Naruto writers have their day. I'm starting to get the feeling that Kishi's running out of ideas to keep this series going. Just have Itachi powered Naruto crush Sasuke already so the fandom may rejoice! Though I have to admit, Killer Bee's story and Naruto and Dark Naruto's scene was kind of sweet. _

_Thoughts on the anime: Oh, wait? The filler's over?_

_I would like to commemorate Paddy'sGal for her amusing nickname for Yumi. From now on, I will think of her as Yum-Yum. I would also like to apologize that the link for the fanart was faulty. It's fixed now._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns no part of Naruto. She is simply adding it to her list of things she wants _

_when she manages to become rich and famous, and all the men of the world are at her feet._

_Special thanks to Ibby-kun (MegaB) for Betaing._

_**In perpetrating a revolution, there are two requirements: someone or something to revolt against and someone to actually show up and do the revolting. Dress is usually casual and both parties may be flexible about time and place, but if either faction fails to attend, the whole enterprise is likely to come off badly.  
-Woody Allen, A Brief Yet Helpful Guide To Civil Disobedience (Without feathers), 1972 **_

* * *

It took five minutes for the entire invasion to fall apart at all sides.

It took much longer for the whole thing to clear up.

For a moment all that Jiraiya could think was that Danzou had known. He had figured it out already, but, no, if he had, he would have killed them all out right. Danzou wasn't the type to play with his enemies. Any threat, no matter how small, was taken out cleanly and efficiently. That was how Danzou had always carried out his missions, and it would be foolish for him to stop now.

This must have been planned at some time in the past. Danzou probably never intended to go to the Exams at all. This was just another security measure, and they had triggered it accidentally. They should have known better. Any further thoughts on the issue were forgotten as he watched the encircling ninja. Now, ROOT was emotionless, and they were fanatically loyal to Danzou, but they weren't stupid. They weren't going to go one on one with any one of the Sannin. That would be suicide. Jiraiya also knew that they knew this. He braced himself and noticed Tsunade and Orochimaru doing the same.

"Do not attack!" one, apparently the leader commanded, "Contact the Hokage!"

So, Danzou didn't know. This was going to be a surprise to him too. At least one thing was going according to plan, but they couldn't allow him to know just yet. They might have a chance to win after all. In one motion, the Sannin jumped, landing on different places in the area so that anyone who tried to escape would have to pass far too closely for them to live. Jiraiya bit his thumb and placed his hand on the ground, seeing the others doing the same.

It seemed that they still reacted like a team, even now.

The three consecutive blasts and the three gigantic animals that appeared only made that feeling more real.

"JIRAIYA!" Gamabunta howled, "Who do ya think you are dragging me here in the middle of my Sake!"

It looked like the toad boss had been a little busy.

"Orochimaru..." Manda hissed in a dangerous tone, "Just what is the meaning of this..?"

Tsunade was already deep in conversation with her summon, Katsuyu, who didn't seem to resent being summoned as much as the others. Tsunade always had had all the luck with summons. What was worse was now Gamabunta and his children seemed to have decided that they liked Naruto better than him...

"There are your sacrifices, Manda," Orochimaru said, "eat."

"Don't command me," the snake hissed.

Nevertheless, he did attack, along with Jiraiya and Tsunade, tearing through the twenty ninja with a fury that made even Jiraiya feel a little sickened. He only turned away in time to notice that someone with a bird mask had managed to climb up Gamabunta and about to charge him. Jiraiya dodged the attack and sent a kick that caused the ROOT to slip and fall. Jiraiya winced a little bit, but was back to business immediately.

It took the three of them almost no time to dispose of the ROOT. Jiraiya and Tsunade turned around abruptly to face Orochimaru.

No words passed between them. Really, no words could pass. There was nothing to say. For a moment, Jiraiya was faced with their Genin picture. They looked so innocent, so carefree. Even Orochimaru's face had held some amusement at their antics. What happened? Why had things changed?

It didn't matter anymore. Jiraiya looked at the man who had once been his best friend and made his decision. He was prepared for the worse, prepared to kill that boy.

A bird chirped from somewhere, and the Sannin jumped to attack.

* * *

Naruto refused to have a fight with Sora right in the middle of the arena with the Sannin clashing overhead and Sasuke and Yumi both trying to murder each other below him. That would have been stupid. He jumped down into the forested area and yelled up for Sora to hear.

"Come on, you fake Jinchuuriki!"

That definitely caught his attention.

Sora tore off into the trees in hot pursuit, yelling something that Naruto couldn't hear, and the red around him started to intensify. Naruto was starting to feel something in his stomach churning.

It looked liked Fuzzy Wuzzy was noticing that a part of itself was nearby. Red was already at the edge of his vision, but Naruto refused to give in. He had a job to do, and Kyuubi and his freedom wasn't going to get in the way, they still had a chance!

"Futon: Juha Sho!" Sora yelled, one arm going in front of him in a violent slashing motion.

The attack hit Naruto right in the middle of the back and the clone exploded, knocking Sora backwards into a tree.

"Wai-" Sora gasped out as regained his footing.

"That was a Bunshin Daibakuha," Naruto grinned, jumping down behind him.

"Lose the mask!" Sora growled, "You're just some half-baked ninja who thinks that looking like Akatsuki makes him powerful."

"So you know about Akatsuki," Naruto said, "That's interesting. So you're really Danzou's little stooge after all, but you're wrong. We're not pretending to be Akatsuki or even all that interested in them. I'm called Shippuu, the leader of Hakumei, the group who will spell out the end of Danzou's Konoha."

"That's not your name," Sora hissed.

"Nope," Naruto nodded, "You're keeping up nicely."

"You're a coward," Sora snarled, the red cloak around him growing thicker and more obvious, "Futon: Juha Reppu Sho!"

Naruto dodged the attack without too much trouble, but his vision was going red. He could see the red Chakra that was a sign of the Kyuubi was starting to envelope him into what was almost a cloak. Part of him was screaming for Sora's blood, and the other part was struggling just to keep himself under control. Slowly, Naruto realized that he was standing on his hands and knees. For some reason, this seemed appropriate.

**Kill him.**

Sora was starting to look a little nervous that his opponent was doing the same thing as he was, but he too was on all fours.

"I don't care what kinds of tricks you use," Sora spat, "I'm going to take you down no matter what, and show Danzou-sama just what I'm made of!"

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," was the only reply.

* * *

Yumi's eyes were slightly wider than usual as she faced Sasuke, now in his uniform with his face covered. Behind his mask, Sasuke was grinning fiercely, the Sharingan almost glowing. Finally, he had gotten under her skin. After all this time, he had gotten to see Yumi's emotionless face was an expression of shock. Now for an expression of horror...

"Well, this is a surprise," Yumi said softly, she looked around, but Genma was nowhere in sight, "I see...so you planned this the whole time. Too bad you'll fail. So, where is he?"

"You're rather overconfident, Yumi-oujo-san," Sasuke smirked, "Genma-san has work to do, it's just the two of us. So we can fight without all the annoying rules."

Yumi laughed a little at that title, a hard, cold laugh that didn't suit a twelve-year-old girl, "You think that just by figuring that out, you'll win? You'll be very disappointed."

"Uchiha Yumi, age nineteen, user of earth and fire, graduated the Academy at age twelve, Chuunin at the same age, currently a Jonin, formerly in an arranged engagement with Uchiha Itachi. You'd be amazed by how much I know about you," Sasuke told her. After all, he had looked at her with all the dislike of a younger sibling who felt that she was unworthy of his wondrous Nii-sama.

Sasuke remembered her now. Yumi was naturally small, and with the help of a little make up and change in hair style, she could pass as a child. She didn't even need a genjutsu, which was troublesome and would wear off if you stopped thinking about it. She was the perfect plant. Sasuke wouldn't have thought of her though. The two of them had had almost no actual relationship, and it had been a very long time.

Uchiha Yumi came from one of the best families within the Uchiha clan, second only to the leader's family, and she had been recognized for her ability and the fact that she had activated the Sharingan at the tender age of ten, unlike most women in the Uchiha clan who never activated it. She had been engaged to the younger Uchiha Itachi, as a political marriage. Both families had power and the joining would have been advantageous to both. There had been high hopes that they would produce very powerful heirs. That had obviously never happened.

Sasuke only narrowly dodged the whip that had threatened to impale him.

"Don't you dare speak that traitor's name to me!" Yumi snarled, "He threw his pride in the dirt and ran off like some civilian whose 'precious little brother' had been kidnapped. He was no ninja."

Sasuke felt rage building up inside him. Who did she think this was? Itachi had only tolerated her because he had to. Besides, if Sasuke remembered right, Yumi hadn't particularly cared for Itachi, so what was she complaining about? He ignored Yumi's 'precious little brother' comment, and sent a fire ball at her.

Yumi dodged it easily. The problem with that technique was that as long as you didn't freeze, you'd be able to avoid it.

"It's interesting, you know, I was set up to watch Hatake Kakashi, and I ended up fighting a Missing Nin," Yumi said dashing forward and aiming a kick at Sasuke. If he dodged Sasuke was going to hit the whip, but if he ducked, he could get her in the gut. Sasuke was about the duck, but then it seemed that the whip was going to change direction, so ducked and sidestepped, knocking away the whip with a kunai.

It was slightly disturbing to fight someone with the Sharingan when you had the Sharingan.

* * *

Zabuza cursed for the thousandth time since the signal went off. It had gone off way too soon, but not before there was a giant snake tearing down the walls, and the Suna nin, Baki, who he had been loitering with had suddenly tried to take him prisoner saying that it was nothing personal but he couldn't have Zabuza aiding Konoha, Hibiki, the snakelike Jonin vanishing in a puff of smoke that revealed him to be a Kage Bunshin, and the fat Kusa Jonin ending up being a fat Oto nin who was maybe fifteen who also attacked him.

Zabuza had only barely managed to counter both attacks with his darling sword and make a dash for the main building only to have to dodge the giant snake that he burst through the walls, and the fact that everyone was fighting everyone.

The genjutsu was gone, and he was now running around looking like himself and already Zabuza had been attacked by ROOT, Oto and Suna nin. Once he was even attacked by Maito Gai, a Kinen supporter, by mistake. That had been slightly disturbing since the man had apologized by flashing a smile so toothy it would have make Kisame jealous, giving a thumbs up, apologizing for his mistake and as a sort of 'blessing' said that he hoped that the 'flames of youth' would continue to burn within him.

Zabuza had forgotten just how creepy a place Konoha was. Those kids were relatively normal, even if some of them did come from this madhouse. Maybe he would give them some parting advice about green spandex before he left them to go on his merry way with Isaribi. Just because they did have some sanity.

Oddly enough he missed that girl, well, after three or so years, he couldn't help but like the little twit. And now that Haku kid and her seemed to be writing to one another, and he knew just where that was going to lead... He'd kill the idiot boy.

But that wasn't important. He had a mission to complete. It had been some time since Zabuza had been given anything that even resembled a mission. He had 'jobs'. Jobs that people were willing to pay quite a bit to be completed. Missing nin didn't usually go on missions anymore, and he was kind of enjoying this one.

Besides, it was an excuse to attack the Hokage building, and Zabuza was remembering the thrill he had gotten out of the whole Mizukage assassination. Now that had been fun. Miyako, Raiga and he had stormed the building with just the three of them and were happily taking out everything that had stood in their way. That was when the Seven had been disbanded. Kisame had betrayed them all, and informed the Mizukage just what was being planned.

The whole operation had fallen apart due to that betrayal. The Mizukage had managed to turn the other three to his side without too much trouble. Zabuza and Raiga had only barely managed to make it out with their lives. The two of them had split up, and the last that Zabuza heard of him, he had basically lost what little sanity that he had had left.

...And Miyako...

Zabuza's hand gripped his sword tighter and kicked the doors open.

The Mizukage had been deposed later by a full scale rebellion, but he and Raiga hadn't been called back. They were considered too dangerous; even if they were only doing what everyone else had really wished had been done. The others, the ones who had lived that long anyways, were put to death for their loyalty to the former Mizukage, but Kisame had gotten away. Kisame had joined the group known as Akatsuki. The name of the Seven Swordsmen was now one that was synonymous to senseless murder. It was sort of resurrected later, but it was never the same.

It had fallen apart before the whole 'attempt to kill the Mizukage' thing anyways.

Now, he was doing the same thing as he had done all those years ago, and it felt good!

There weren't too many people there, everyone important, including Danzou himself, were somewhere else. Probably, word had reached Danzou that something was wrong, and he was mustering up a real counter attack, not this flimsy security that Kinen had hoped to get past through the element of surprise.

Well, it didn't really concern him if the kids weren't ready. They had to learn to deal with what happened when plans blew up. They weren't his problem.

He was just here for the final part of his job.

Most people who were left in the building jumped back as Zabuza swung the sword and dashed up the stairs. He was grinning behind his mask. The old rush of adrenaline was pulsing through his veins. It was just like that time. Dashing through the building, cutting down anyone who was in his way, knowing that no one could stand up to you. Zabuza was not an honorable man. He couldn't care less about finding a worthy opponent. Zabuza just liked the thrill from winning.

This was bringing that thrill back to him.

A ROOT member with a mask that looked like some kind of smiling mammal that Zabuza would have eaten if it was real, met him at the entrance to the Interrogation room. Zabuza was grinning like some kind of maniac behind his mask.

"Oh, great," Zabuza said, preparing his sword, "I was getting tired of just swinging things around, and she was starting to want to taste some blood. Stand there and be my target."

"You will go no further," the ROOT nin said, ignoring Zabuza.

Zabuza snorted. Did people actually talk like that in this village? Well, only the really creepy ones. The members of Kinen were weird but they didn't sound like something in a cheesy novel that that perverted teacher-hermit-thing had written.

Who read that stuff other than Sharingan Kakashi anyways?

Zabuza charged forwards, swinging his sword and the ROOT nin jumped, narrowly avoiding the blow making a series of hand gestures.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he said.

A double appeared immediately and both attacked Zabuza from different angles. It might have been harder if Zabuza hadn't been sparring with Naruto, the Kage Bunshin king, before this fight, and he had gotten some strategies for dealing with Kage Bunshin. The first was, unless your name happened to be Shippuu no Naruto, the things were so draining that you could only make five tops, and that was on a good day. Basically, since Kage Bunshin could execute their own attacks, they also had to have a supply of Chakra. That seriously cut down yours. Naruto, being a Jinchuuriki, had so much Chakra, that it simply didn't matter. He could create his own army, and would only feel a little tired. If Naruto had full access to the Bijuu's Chakra, it would be even scarier.

This guy was nothing. A good hit and the clone would be gone.

A good swipe and he might hit the nin as well.

Zabuza swung his sword and charged, still not bothering to actually use a jutsu. A scream reached his ears but Zabuza didn't turn around to see what was left of the man. If he was alive, good for him, if not, too bad.

Zabuza, Demon of the Bloody Mist, had returned to take on a Hidden Village and no little peon was going to bother him. Even if his wasn't the main part, Zabuza wanted to revel in his memories.

He kicked open the door to the Inquisition Room and into the prison. He stopped at one of the cells and hoisted his sword over one shoulder.

"Heya, Princess," he smirked, "I'm here to rescue you."

Nii Yugito looked at Zabuza with mixed shock and disgust.

"Who the heck are you?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Taiki sent me," Zabuza sneered back. This little chick was a little too sure of herself for him. He actually liked shy girls. Particularly when they were younger than him.

Zabuza blinked as the thought occurred to him. Somehow...that didn't sound right...

Yugito raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"Yep, Taiki, or at least the person you know as Taiki, sent me. He left a message too. Something about a promise."

Yugito blinked, this was not something she had been prepared for.

"You mean he actually," Yugito didn't seem to want to believe him.

"You should really be careful with who you promise things to," Zabuza was really starting to enjoy this. "You never know just how they are."

Zabuza was about to force open the door when the door of the inquisition room opened again, and someone that he knew very well stepped into the hall.

"Well, when I saw you I didn't think that you'd be doing something like this, Zabuza," The man grinned, showing teeth that were too sharp for a human. His skin was blue and strangely smooth, and there were gills attached to his neck. His eyes were wrong too, they were small, and white, but the very center of them was a dead black that looked somehow...unreal.

"Kisame," Zabuza breathed out, looking for the first time in years at the man who had single handedly torn the Seven Swordsmen apart.

* * *

A ladle made a pretty pathetic weapon.

Anko decided this as she and Kurenai stood in front of the aged owner of Ichiraku Ramen, who had apparently tried to defend his daughter's honor and beat off both Oto and Suna with only a ladle as a weapon.

It was amazing that the man had lived this long.

Baki, the Jonin instructor of some of the participants in the Exam was facing them with an annoyed look on his face. The annoyance was probably due to the fact that some of his men had actually been beaten into submission by the old ramen vender.

"Ya know," Anko said in a conversational tone to Kurenai, "I used to really have respect for Suna, but I think I've lost most of it."

"Most of it?" Kurenai asked, her crimson eyes showing their amusement at the whole situation despite how the fact that they were all but surrounded.

"Ok, all of it," Anko smirked, "I was going to use a summon, but I don't really think they're worth it anymore."

"You know, we're right here," Baki said, looking annoyed.

"Of course we do, we're just ignoring you," Kurenai said, smiling a little, "Well, Anko, do you want to have some fun?"

Anko cracked her knuckles and grinned a little.

"Let's play," she said, bringing her hands into two seals, "Sen'eijashu!"

Kurenai nodded and put her own hands together, "Magen: Jubaku Satsu!"

One of the Chuunin suddenly went very still and seemed to be staring out into space as Kurenai approached him.

Snakes appeared in Anko's sleeves and shot towards Baki and his men. Baki dodged but one of the others didn't. A creepy grin appeared on Anko's face as the creatures wrapped themselves around their prisoner. She yanked the snakes and the Chuunin was yanked forwards a few steps.

"My cute babies," she said to the snakes the same way that most people would talk to a real baby, "Bare with mummy for little bit. I promise I'll feed you something good..."

Anko jumped, pivoting off of the wall of the ramen shop to give her altitude and then yanking the snakes into the air. After a moment of pulling him up, the snakes suddenly unwound themselves and pushed the Chuunin higher than Anko. Anko jumped up to meet him and kicked him in the stomach, sending him slamming to the ground.

Anko landed lightly and made a victory sign.

"Ha! The beautiful single Anko-chan defeats her enemies again!" she crowed.

It was then that Anko heard an explosion behind her and saw three Chuunin who had been sneaking up on her fall to the ground. Anko turned around and blinked at the bodies and Kurenai, who had made quick work of her victim, but had been a little busy to notice Anko's problem.

"You need to pay more attention. If my students were here, I'd be using you as an example of what not to do," an amused male voice said.

Anko looked up and grinned at the form of Iruka, bit her finger and slammed her hand to the ground. A moment later, she was standing eye level to him, on the head of a very large snake.

"You saved my life," Anko said with a small smile, "I'll give you something really good when all of this is over."

The last part was said in more of a singsong voice with a weird grin on her face.

Iruka blinked and blushed at her words. Maybe it would have been better just to have yelled for her to watch out.

* * *

"Hurry up, you double headed monstrosity!" Tayuya yelled behind her at the forms of Sakon and Ukon as they ran on the rooftops towards the Uchiha District.

"You shouldn't say such things, Tayuya," Jirobo reprimanded her.

"Oh, shut up, lard butt," she snared, grumbling a few choice words under her breath.

Tayuya was anything but in a good mood.

Everything had seemed to have been going well. As Kiyoko she had infiltrated things wonderfully. Since they had already captured the real Kusa Genin and Orochimaru-sama was going to use them for his own jutsu, she, Sakon, Ukon (pretending to be Ren) and Kidomaru (as Aoi) acted as students while Jirobo pretended to be their teacher. It was perfect, and no one, not even the other Kusa Genin had suspected them.

And apparently someone else had thought of the same plan.

Because there were three groups, all fighting for different reasons, no one's plans were quite working right. It was amazing that things hadn't turned into a total blood bath, but there were areas where only a fool would go.

Like the arena, if you didn't get squashed by a summon, impaled by a stray kunai or murdered by an elemental jutsu, you'd get killed by the Uchiha chick and her little problem. Well, one less member of that weird little team, the better.

At least they hadn't been followed.

"So, since when were we supposed to abduct some weak Uchiha kid from the district? I thought that was supposed to be Kabuto's job. He got the kid while we ran amuck, killed Danzou, and went home. I don't see why we didn't just grab the Yumi chick when we had the chance," Kidomaru grumbled.

"Because Orochimaru-sama wants his first new body to be male, you idiot," Ukon sneered.

"Either that or he just doesn't like girls much," Tayuya shrugged.

"Women always think that when someone doesn't find them attractive, they must be gay," Sakon smirked while his twin brother snickered.

Tayuya glared at both of them. Well excuse her for noticing that Orochimaru seemed to avoid girls like the plague. Even that one crystal user who was all but undressing herself for him was ignored. She would have loved to tell them just what she thought, but they were a little busy.

Well, it wasn't like the four (five?) of them were actually fond of each other. Tayuya hated each and every one of them. But she supposed that was just how teams were. You put up with the other members because your boss told you to.

"Well, as fun as this conversation is to listen to," another voice said from nowhere, "I'm going to have to break things up. Tessenka no Mai: Tsuru."

The white thing appeared from nowhere, narrowly missing Jirobo, who was surprisingly fast for his weight and managed to dodge.

The figure of a masked man wearing a white haori with a blue flame pattern on it. The single kanji and the mask read simply Haka. He was holding what Tayuya realized was a chain staff, which seemed to have been shaped like someone's spine.

Wait.

That was completely disgusting!

"You're that Chauvinist!" she almost screamed, "Yuuma or whatever."

"My name is Haka no Kimimaro, and I will also be your executioner," his voice was completely different than what it had been. It wasn't laid back, or amused. The closest it had been to this was when he had threatened to kill the dog of that one Konoha dog-kid. It was dead, cold and completely uncaring.

"He's a little full of himself, don't you think?" Sakon said to his brother.

"Let's teach the trash a little lesson," Ukon grinned.

Jirobo readied himself and Kidomaru was already crawling up the wall. Tayuya pressed her flute to her lips. There was no way that this clown was going to win against all four of them at the same time. He must really be an idiot.

It was then that Tayuya played a note, and realized that Kimimaro was already gone and had appeared right behind Sakon and Ukon, his spinal cord staff spinning as the dance began.

* * *

Ibiki was one of the few members of Kinen who was not giving away his position to anyone. He was too useful in his place and not particularly useful anywhere else. Ibiki knew all of Konoha's secrets and plans, or, at least, he thought that he had. Apparently, Danzou had kept a few to himself.

The old man was watching the battles from the safety of the Hokage Monument, where the evacuation for the civilians had used to be, leaning on his staff, and seemingly undisturbed by the total destruction being unleashed. If it had been in a contained area, Ibiki wouldn't have cared. He had seen carnage and had been tortured enough to have pretty thick skin, but this went beyond a lot that he had seen.

Three sections of the wall had been broken down, there were snake summons everywhere, no one had had enough time to get the civilians to a safe place, and no one knew whose side who was on. Danzou couldn't send any ninja into the arena, unless he wanted to kill them. The Legendary Sannin would turn around and unanimously attack pretty much anyone who got between them and then return to fighting. Uchiha Yumi was fighting against one of Hakumei, probably Sasuke, and she wasn't responding to summons. The three prominent clans had proven themselves to be traitors along with several powerful ninja.

It was amazing how calm Danzou could be while everything fell apart.

"Ibiki, come here," Danzou said in a calm voice.

Ibiki walked over, kneeling down, "Hai, Hokage-sama?"

"Be prepared to commence interrogations on all who are captured. This battle may not be won, but it will not be lost either. We are at an advantage. They were expecting me to be at the Exams, and because of that, both groups have lost the element of surprise that they were hoping for. The loss of Uchiha Fugaku is a tragedy, but we must use the mistake to our advantage.

While our opponents possibly outnumber us, they are now disorganized, and unsure of who to fight. Unfortunately, the same holds true for us. My ROOT does not know who is loyal and who is a traitor. We are treading on delicate ground, Ibiki, and I want you to do whatever it takes to find out the identity of every single traitor," Danzou did not look at him.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Ibiki said, keeping his head down, "if I may be so bold, what of the Sannin?"

"I believe that they are traitors as well. They held on to the foolish ideals of their teacher, and refused to grasp the reality of what I had planned for them. Also, they seem to have been working alongside the unknown team of Missing Nin in order to depose me. Their fighting against Orochimaru is convenient for us, but they are not on our side."

"I see,"

That meant that Danzou had probably intended to kill them after this exam from the start. Once they got rid of Orochimaru, they really weren't useful to Danzou anymore. He probably would have assigned them a final student, a ROOT graduate most likely, and then have them sent off on some suicidal mission after it was over.

"One more there, Ibiki," Danzou said soft, "While my faith in you is unshaken, I fear that you have poor taste in your assistants, if Mitarashi Anko is any indication. I will be assigning your help personally from now on. After all, our power will be weakened after this incident, and I do not wish for any mistakes to be made."

Crud.

* * *

The streets were a madhouse. Everyone was fighting absolutely everyone, and no one in Konoha was quite sure who was on whose side. Hinata and Neji moved as quickly as they could, avoiding major fights and trying to make it to the point they were supposed to reach.

Hinata wasn't sure if this was even going to work anymore. With the fact that there were three factions running around, it was amazing that it was working at all.

They, along with Sakura, Sai, and Haku were charged with aiding Kinen in this sector of the village, but it wasn't easy to tell just who was on their side. ROOT had quickly gotten rid of their masks once they realized that both groups would attack them before attacking one another, and Hinata hadn't seen all of Kinen, nor could she have remembered if she had. Kinen had been fairly large, and Hinata wasn't always the best at remembering faces.

At last, Hinata's eyes fixed on the shape of the sickly looking Hayate, who was fighting two opponents at the same time with only a single sword. She didn't see anyone familiar with him and it looked like he was in a very bad situation.

"Rasen!" Hinata called out

Hinata didn't bother to see just who her opponent was, she prepared for one of the more or less traditional attacks of her clan. Being unknown was no longer a big deal, and poison attacks could easily go out of control in places like this one.

"Juho Soshiken!" Hinata cried, as Chakra formed around her hands and she forced it at a man who was wearing a black outfit that labeled him as ROOT.

"Hakke Kusho!" She heard Neji's voice call from close beside her. Her cousin's attack was much more powerful than hers, but he also didn't have the accuracy she did quite yet, and it hit his opponent and those around him with less power than it should have.

Hayate stood back to back with Hinata and nodded to her, "Thank you for the help," he said, "I was separated from my group, and I seem to have stepped into another problem."

"I can see that," Neji said, crouching into the pose for Hakkesho Kaiten, knees bent, and both arms out hands with their palms up.

"You can thank us when we get out of this," Hinata said, looking at the circle that was growing around them and entering into the Juuken pose.

Everyone attacked at the same time, and Hinata lost track of everything else as she fought. There were three people that she was fighting, but none of them were ROOT. Hinata struck out, dodged a taijutsu strike and hit one man in the chest, and whirled around to face another. It seemed like the pattern went on forever.

It was when Hinata was feinting away from a large man who must have been a samurai in his spare time when she saw it. The Hyuuga clan was also there. She knew the robes and the eyes like hers, but what was upsetting was that they were fighting each other, and she couldn't see her father anywhere with them.

Hinata snapped back to reality in time to dodge a sword that was aimed for her side and kick up. This was a move that her father would have slapped her for using. A Hyuuga should not resort to kicking a man in the groin. It was completely dishonorable. Hinata disagreed now. After all, a target was a target.

Besides, as Jiraiya had told her: Ninja cheat, it's what they do.

Neji snickered a little as the man fell to the ground, and they took advantage the ruckus to fall back into a small alley and into another street.

"Still fighting dirty I see," Hinata could hear the smile.

"There's no such thing as fighting dirty, unless of course you fall in the mud while fighting," Hinata smiled back than she turned to Hayate, "where are the others supposed to meet during this kind of an emergency?"

"We should have been able to meet close to here. At Ichiraku Ramen, but there are some problems there. Anko's not helping," Hayate sighed, "Ginta and Akira were supposed to be here, but obviously they've been forced to withdraw."

"Well, let's see if we can get somewhere with more members. We can't hang around this area too much more," Neji said, looking around, "No one's paying too much attention, but sooner or later someone's going to see us, and then we'll have fight pretty much everyone here..."

They started walking, but Hinata noticed the thing come out from behind the garbage can. It rushed directly at her, dodged the first kick that she sent and grabbed onto the leg in a kind of violent embrace.

"Hinata-nee-san!" Cried Hyuuga Hanabi, "I knew that you'd come!"

* * *

Haku and Sakura stood back to back, in the center of a bridge preparing to attack again. Kinen was attacking close by, but Haku and Sakura had drawn the attention of the Uchiha guards, who seemed to have decided that it was directly their fault that Uchiha Fugaku was dead.

Well, they had a point.

"Are you ready, Haku?" Sakura asked sweetly, turning towards him.

"I think they're ready," Haku smiled and the air suddenly became very cold and a mist formed around them as he took out an umbrella.

"Where'd you get that?" Sakura asked.

"Team Shugo got it from an opponent,"

"Nice,"

"I like it,"

As the bridge iced over, both of them heard the sounds of fighting from Sakura's side of the bridge. She ignored it. The plan was that the mist would cover everything while Haku froze everything over. Then Sakura would hide the ice in a lovely genjutsu and everyone would rush to attack them then end up having problems and allowing Haku and her to win much more easily.

Sakura braced herself as the mist began to thin, and heard the jingle of bells just in time to dodge the Senbon that had been aimed at her face. Sakura recognized the attack and threw a kunai at the bell, shattering it before the attack could be completed.

"Kin, that's enough!" Sakura heard someone's voice say.

"I just wanted to test her and see if she was any good. Her hair seriously annoys me," the girl's voice sounded slightly sulky.

"Can't we just kill them?" another voice, irritable and irritating, asked.

"You heard him, you idiot," That would be Dosu, the leader of the three Oto Genin who had been in the Preliminaries.

The mist finally cleared away completely and left them now with Uchiha on one side of them and the three Oto Genin on the other. It looked like the Uchiha on Sakura's side seemed to be gone.

Genjutsu? Or had they been confused by the bells?

Sakura really didn't have time to worry about it.

All she had time to do was get ready for this battle. She was actually really looking forwards to this. It was about time that she could actually fight! Sakura gathered the Chakra into her fists the way that Tsunade had taught her to and grinned a little bit.

"I'm really looking forwards to this," she said cracking her knuckles. She had really wanted to get back at Kin for the hair comments for a while now.

It wasn't her fault that she had pink hair! She hadn't planned this out! She would have been fine with a normal color that wasn't so...pink. This girl had no right to make fun of it.

It was strange how she was now more upset about her hair than her forehead. She guessed things changed.

Kin smirked back and Haku just shook his head and looked over at the other two and bowed slightly.

"Sakura-chan's busy at the moment so I suppose I'll fight both of you," he said.

"I won't hold back just because you're a girl," Zaku said, grinning.

One of Haku's eyes twitched.

* * *

Rock Lee hadn't even been in the arena when everything began. He had been training in his usual spot, attempting to lift a boulder that he really shouldn't have been able to and generally minding his own business. While he would have liked to have had the chance to see his rival Haru fight, it depressed him that he couldn't be there.

Lee pumped himself up again and shook off the feeling. Such feelings were befitting of an old man regretting that life had passed him by, not of a young one who had everything before him!

Lee punched the air, and returned to his usual training. He couldn't allow himself to be depressed. Gai-sensei would have been disappointed in him. Very disappointed.

That was when he heard the explosion.

"What?" was all he got out before he saw the Suna nin appear all around him.

"Konoha Citizen, if you wish to live, put your hands in the air," one of the ninja, a Chuunin said calmly.

It was true, Lee was nothing more than a citizen, even with Gai's training. There was nothing that he could do.

For a moment he hung his head, but he stopped. No! Gai-sensei had seen something in him! Haru hadn't laughed at him when Lee proclaimed them to be rivals! He couldn't let them down! They were waiting for him to take his place as a true ninja!

"I shall never surrender in the springtime of my youth!" Lee cried, taking a taijutsu stance, "Let us all begin!"

The five Chuunin looked at each other in an amused kind of way, and the woman in the group took out the naginata that she was carrying.

"Alright, have it your way," she grinned.

"Stop it," another man said, obviously the leader. "You have other things to do then play with the civilians, Akiko-chan."

"Don't talk to me so familiarly," Akiko grumbled, "Alright, I'll get to my position. Hurry up, Baki, the Kazekage won't wait forever you know."

Baki nodded, and seemed to prepare for battle. Lee got himself into the pose that Gai-sensei had taught him to take when facing a powerful enemy. Baki had taken out a katana, so he had a better range than Lee did, and Lee couldn't use any jutsu to help himself.

Baki moved fast, faster than Lee had thought that he would, but Lee managed to jump out of the way, attempting to ricochet off one of the trees and land and kick on him, but Baki seemed to have guessed where this was going.

It was unfortunate, but Lee wasn't in the shape that he should have been. Gai-sensei had always lamented that the boy wasn't his student and he didn't have the time that he would have liked to train him. He didn't even know a lot of special combos.

The katana whipped around quickly and barely missed grazing Lee's side. Lee back flipped a few feet and jumped, trying to make an aerial kick. Baki caught the first attack, but Lee twisted a little, and managed to kick him in the side. Baki let out of grunt of pain and released Lee's leg. Lee jumped back, ready to continue but panting hard.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" A very loud voice yelled as another green spandex clad figure jumped right in front of Baki.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee cheered.

Baki said nothing, just raised his blade to a more defensive position.

"Lee," Gai said, his back to him, "Get to town, find Kakashi or Kurenai. If you see people who are wearing masks and haoris with blue flames, you can trust them. Don't trust anyone else, and remember, I want to see you as a great ninja with the flames of youth always burning brightly in you."

Something about the serious tone that Gai had taken made it so Lee didn't argue. He didn't even look back as he dashed away, and he didn't hear the words that drifted after him.

"Good luck, my number one student."

* * *

**Omake: Bathhouses**

On the way to Konoha, Hakumei had stopped at another bathhouse than the one where Haku had met one of the few people who would ever understand him. It was in a nice area and even Zabuza seemed to be in a good mood.

Well, he had locked himself in a room with his sword, but that was usually a good thing.

As the guys slowly filed into the men's bathhouse there was a general outcry from a large group of guys getting ready to come in.

"Hey, she can't come in here!" one said, pointing at Haku.

"I'm a boy..." Haku sighed.

"Hey, come on and stop joking around!" a girl who Haku had never seen before called to him.

"I can't go in there!" Haku protested.

"Um...Haku...I don't think that you need to worry..." Naruto said, looking both amused and kind of sorry for him.

"Yeah," Sasuke nodded, "Looks like they prepared for you."

Haku gave them both a questioning look and then turned around to see that there was a third bath, between the men's and women's that said **Haku's Baths**.

"It looks like you're a gender to yourself in some places..." Sai said, smiling at him, "You're really lucky."

While Haku had a really nice, private bath, his self esteem was badly damaged for a long time after that. It might have been for that reason that he was so violent during the Exams when people mistook his gender.

* * *

_And...CUT!_

_Urg, I'm sorry for the wait. I've had college (free at last), vacation and I've been trying to weasel my way out of having a write a Death Note/Harry Potter crossover without having to write that penalty..._

_Anyways, this chapter is really more of a setting up chapter for all the battles, and I haven't even introduced some things... oh I have so much work to do... At least I got Yumi's thing straightened out._

_So anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave me a nice review!_

_Additional Notes:_

_Yumi: I have seen via experience that it is possible to hide your real age by just putting your hair into a certain style and walking right. For instance, in the movie _Anne of Green Gables _(Yes, I watched that with my parents as a child) the actress passes for a twelve year old when she's in her twenties. It was all done by a little make-up, her hair in pig tails, and the clothes. It's really amazing how we judge by appearance. _

_Arranged Marriages: Most marriages of people with good families were arranged before the modern era, and there are countries that still do it. We think of that as a horrific idea, but that's just the way that it was. Almost all of marriages of the royalty of Europe was arranged, and some might still be arranged, but pretend that they're not. Madara mentioned that Itachi had a girlfriend/lover, but deep down, I doubt that a clan like the Uchiha's would allow the next in line for being the head to marry or date anyone who wasn't advantageous and a member of the same clan. _

_Iruka: Did you know that he has basically no attacks? It's true! I checked, and the only thing that he has is an attack given to him in a filler. That's just sad. Well, I do my best with him, but this means that I'll have to make up his fighting style on my own without much to guild me. I'll see what I can model it after..._

_Cheating: As I'm sure you know, being a ninja was, in reality, a job in Japan that had no honor associated with it. I believe that one of the reasons was because they wouldn't follow their rules that the samurai used for combat. (Not that they were all that fair. I read one folktale where groin kicking seemed to be some kind of art form. Basically, anything could be used as a weapon, but it's not nice to kill people who are unarmed/sleeping.) I'm going to hint at the more traditional view of ninja in this story, even though in Naruto, ninja are closer to soldiers than anything else._

_Lee: He thinks with lots of exclamation points. I also tried to give a somewhat logical explanation for the whole 'youth' thing. I mean, unless the pair of them are completely insane (which is possible) there has to be a kind of logic to their thinking. I tried to give it some. Whether I did or not is up to you._

_Naginata: A pole arm with a long, curved blade. Think of Sailor Saturn's weapon, or, if you're too young to have had that one on your record, Nadeshiko in Shugo Chara had one too. Another, similar weapon is the Kwan Dao, a the naginata's Chinese equivalent as demonstrated by Tao Ren in Shaman King. In the Edo Period, naginatas were traditionally used by women because they eliminated contests of strength and such._

_Reference: There's one in this chapter. Can you guess it?_

_Translations:_

_Futon: Juha Sho – Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm: A powerful jutsu that uses large amounts of wind nature chakra that can cut and slash through any material _

_Futon: Juha Reppu Sho – Wind Release: Beast Wave Violent Wind Palm: This jutsu is somewhat of an enhanced version of the Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm. It used chakra to infused with and condense a mass amount of wind to form a massive demonic-like claw extending from the user's dominant hand to strike and grab a target, as well as deflect any weapon or attack. In addition to making it a deadly short to mid-range weapon, the extending claw also carries tremendous force that can devastate anything in its path without affecting the user, making it useful for dislodging solid and heavy objects. _

_Sen'eijashu – Hidden Shadow Snake Hands: This jutsu allows the user to eject snakes from their wrist or sleeve, usually after a punching motion. The snakes are used primarily to attack from a distance and, being snakes, can inflict multiple poisonous wounds on the victim's body or hold them in place. This jutsu can be used with other parts of the body besides the arms, such as when Orochimaru used it with his tongue. This jutsu can also be classified as a variation of the summoning jutsu. _

_Magen: Jubaku Satsu – Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death: With this jutsu, the user can make themselves disappear, allowing them to approach their target unnoticed. Once completed, a tree and roots will grow at the target's feet and restrict their movements. Once the opponent believes that they are captured, the user can then appear above their opponent from the tree's trunk and kill the target. _

_Juho Soshiken – Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists: The user forms two large lion-like shrouds of chakra around their hands, then thrusts them forward at the opponent. _

_Hakke Kusho – Eight Trigrams Empty Palm: This technique is similar in practice to Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin, but has a specific target rather than a general area. To perform it, the user precisely pinpoints the enemy's vital points with the Byakugan and releases a high-speed palm thrust. A "vacuum shell" compressed using the Gentle Fist is formed to violently push the opponent away. _

_Tessenka no Mai: Tsuru – Dance of the Clematis: Vine: Using his kekkei genkai, Kimimaro can modify and pull out his own spinal column to use as a flexible chain staff, regrowing a new spine to replace the removed one. The protrusions on the vertebrae are modified to make them stronger and sharper. _

_Review!_

_Pryotra_


	27. Part 2: Heat of Battle

_Author's Corner: 1000+ reviews... I'm shocked...this story has actually achieved that much...You are all absolutely wonderful. I stand here, both shocked and completely thrilled that Hakumei has gone so far. Thank you everyone for your supportive comments, your praise and your patience. Particularly with my computer woes and college slow downs. _

_Here's to another round of chapters. Part two is beginning to reach it's conclusion, only this and one more arc to go. That's a lot of chapters, but still, we're at the beginning of the end of that part. I'm thinking it's actually going to be the end of Hakumei as a book and I'm going to start on a sequel. Rather like Shippuuden. Mostly because it's going to be kind of daunting to have...the sheer number of chapters for newcomers, but I'm not sure yet._

_To the person who carped at me about shortening my profile: Profiles are some of the fun of fanfiction. Just because you don't have a sense of humor, doesn't mean I don't, and I honestly don't care of you don't like it. _

_Just to tell all of you, as I said in one of my early chapters. I don't like the idea of a 'good Kyuubi'. I think that by making it good, we're kind of missing one of the big points of the series. Also, I kind of like him as a Super Powered Evil Side that Naruto has to overcome. Making friends with it takes away some of the drama...even the latest chapters still, to me, reinforce that belief._

_Now, some people aren't going to like this chapter. They're going to get annoyed, and possibly stop reading. They will think what I am about to do is unrealistic and came out of the blue. My response is that I've been hinting at this since chapter two and making things so that this is not a completely random plot twist. Please don't hate me for it. I'll explain my reasons at the end of the chapter._

_Random note: I watched the Avatar movie on DVD a while back. Um, maybe it was because it was just at home but...it was kind of like Fern Gully meets Final Fantasy. It just didn't impress me in story or graphics... give me a nice anime any day... Maybe I'm just out of touch or something..._

_Another random note: Go watch Nurarihyon no Mago. Pryotra of commands you!_

_Yumi seems to have actually gotten more hated (if possible) with my statement of who she is. Well, I guess you are probably going to really hate her when I'm done with Part 2. It's honestly fun to make her as unlikable as possible yet she's so useful. She fulfills a role that I never wanted to give to any other character._

_Thoughts on the manga: Kishi-sama, have you been reading fanfiction lately? This looks vaugely familiar... Minato and Kushina rock my socks, and chibi-Itachi-sama just makes me want to hug him...I love Guy. "It's a bug!" Kisame...that's an interesting backstory... Wait. What? Konan...you really rock! I want to write a tribute to you!_

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns no part of Naruto or any of it's franchise. If she did, she wouldn't have to worry about the fact that everything seems to be so bloody expensive lately. She does, however own Ninja Puffs and Yum-Yum and the basic plot line. Not that anyone wants them._

_Thank you to Ibby-kun, (MegaB) for his faithful work as my beta and as someone for me to bounce ideas off of. _

_**Rest in peace. The Mistake shall not be repeated.  
-Cenotoph **_

* * *

Gaara sometimes wished that people weren't so darned fragile.

They were kind of like grapefruit unless he was really, really careful. Gaara didn't really want to kill anyone that badly, but it was hard to control yourself with all the noise going on outside of and inside of his head. With Sandy Wandy's screaming and the Nara clan's attacks, it was amazing that Gaara had any control over his sand at all.

He had followed his siblings only to find that they had headed straight for the Hokage Monument and straight into the guard of ROOT nin who were protecting it. Apparently it wasn't used for civilians anymore. From the numbers of people around it, it was probably where the real Danzou was safely hidden with about ten or twenty of his more trusted men, and directing the battle from there. He was clever, but he wouldn't risk his own life in this battle, not when both attacking sides seemed to agree that he and ROOT should be disposed of first before trying to kill each other. Besides, he was unsure of who was loyal at the moment, and he wasn't going to risk himself.

Smart but not endearing to the rest of the ninja.

Gaara was standing in the center of a swirling dome of sand that was obeying his silent orders and attacking those around him. The Nara seemed to have been about to mount an attack when the Suna nin arrived, and he was now standing in front of a large group of them, including one Shikamaru, apparently an old friend of Naruto.

"This is such a pain", Shikamaru sighed as the man who had been frozen by Shikamaru's shadow was attacked by Temari's fan, "Whose side are we on anyways?"

"Ours," Gaara said, shooting his hand around the pair of them and making it snake out to attack one of Kankuro's puppets. (He really felt guilty about doing that.)

Shikamaru nodded a little in agreement and side stepped one of his mother's kunai. (Was that woman human? Her attacks were enough to honestly freak out Shakaku slightly. She'd just impaled that one guy.)

Shikamaru didn't seem like he was the greatest fighter in the world, but he was excellent at tactics. Gaara was pretty sure that he had a long, happy career ahead of him. Not that he actually wanted it, so maybe it would be the gods' way of getting back at him for his laziness. It was appropriate.

Gaara sent a tendril of sand out, surrounding Temari and Kankuro as a few more Suna nin appeared. He noticed as something came flying towards him but was blocked by his sand. Gaara moved his eyes to see the form of Matsuri, breathing hard and looking wildly at him.

"Leave my teammates alone!" she yelled, looking more terrified that she was being stupid enough to face him head on than anything else.

Gaara's sand wrapped around her before she could attack again. Matsuri's eyes widened and she struggled, but nothing happened. Finally, Matsuri took a deep breath, and Gaara raised an eyebrow.

She wasn't.

"Do-"

She was.

Gaara's sand wrapped around her mouth very quickly. There was absolutely no way that he was going to have poison spat at him. He had trained enough with Hinata to know that even when it was done alone, it was a dangerous technique.

"I'm surprised you figured out how to copy that jutsu after only seeing it once, Gaara admitted, "And by the surprised looks of your teammates, they didn't know you could accomplish that either."

Shikamaru looked from Matsuri to Gaara to Temari and Kankuro and seemed to decide to leave Gaara to his work. This wasn't any of his business, and his father needed all the help that he could get in order to keep ROOT from advancing. At least he had Chouji and his family to help. If only Ino was there. While she was a pain, the whole Ino-Shika-Cho thing was actually a good team.

Matsuri glared over at Gaara, trying to say something, but Gaara shook his head.

"No, Matsuri-san," Gaara said, "I won't let you talk to me. I saw that jutsu too."

It was then that Temari's Kage Bunshin vanished and Gaara's sand formed a dome around him to protect him from the wind that blasted towards him.

"I don't want to fight you, Gaara," Temari whispered, jumping down a little ways away from him, "But I have a duty to Suna. I understand if you don't. You have no reason to care about Suna one way or the other, but it's my home, godforsaken dustbowl or not, and I'm going to defend it."

"Gaara!" Something seemed to click with Kankuro and Matsuri's eyes had widened and she started making sounds like she really, really wanted to talk.

"Yes, Kankuro, this is Gaara. He lived through Yashamaru's little suicide," Temari sighed, "And now he's siding with Konoha."

"I'm not with Konoha," Gaara said, the sand around him preparing to attack, "At least not mainstream Konoha. My friends want to get rid of the current Hokage, and I am going to help them."

"So that's why Konoha seems to be fighting itself," Kankuro muttered, jerking his head back to avoid a stray kunai, "I thought..."

"It doesn't matter," Gaara sighed. "I don't have time to talk like this. I'm going to capture all of you."

Temari smiled a little bit, "Then, otouto, let's play a friendly game. You win, and we come with you nicely, I win and you tell us about the abilities of your friends."

There was no way that Temari was going to win, and she must have known that. She was buying time. Knowing that Gaara wouldn't want to hurt them.

That was his sister.

* * *

Sakura was, ironically, having the time of her life.

She was fighting two on one with two midrange fighters and doing a pretty good job of matching the pair of them. She was grinning as she snatched a senbon with bells attached to it out of the air (she'd already physically crushed the first bells that they sent her way), and was dashing towards Zaku with a Chakra-enhanced punch.

Needless to say, both Zaku and Kin were rather frustrated and were taking it out on one another.

"You idiot, we're fighting a girl with pink hair, you're slowing me down!" Kin yelled as Sakura sent an exploding tag towards her.

"SHANNARO!" She yelled as the thing exploded. She was going to pound these two into something like rice flour. Sakura was the only member of Hakumei to have lost to anyone aside from another member, and it was both embarrassing that she had lost to a Genin and angering that Sasuke thought that he could get revenge for her.

She was going to pound Uchiha Yumi all by herself, thank you.

She jumped to avoid the blast that came from Zaku's arms, and almost crashed her head into Kin, who had been jumping above her.

Both Sakura and Kin kicked, and fell, clutching their sides. Sakura was up in a moment, ready to continue.

It was only out of the corner of her eye that she actually saw the old lady.

She was dressed like a Suna citizen and was watching the fight from a distance, seeming to be very interested and not at all caring about the fact that there was a battle going on around her. She would occasionally side step a kunai but that was about it.

She seemed to be completely unaware of the man who was creeping up on her from behind, preparing to attack.

Sakura closed her eyes tight and preformed the one hand symbol needed.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

She felt the exhaustion of having her Chakra almost halved but bore with it. It didn't take much to enhance her punches and she didn't need to do one of her genjutsus yet.

She should have enough.

The Bunshin dashed at Kin and Zaku while Sakura bolted towards the old woman, and throwing a kunai at the man behind her to make him dodge and slow him down, she attacked.

"Jerk!" Sakura yelled, actually getting a good look at his face and recognizing him as the guy who had come with Neji, Kimimaro and Haku in the Exams. Kamumo or something like that, "Going after her like that!"

Sakura sent a Chakra enhanced punch towards him, but the gray haired young man dodged and jumped onto the roof.

"Nishoku-san, you're surprisingly perceptive," the man said with a smile, "I hadn't thought you would notice me with everything going on around you."

Sakura snorted, but didn't relax. She could feel him getting himself ready to attack, and there was a masked killing intent in the air around her, but it didn't feel like it was directed at her. Actually, his eyes seemed to be on Kin and Zaku, who had stopped fighting the Bunshin and were looking nervous.

"Unfortunately, Nishoku-san, I'm going to have to kill that woman. She's far too dangerous to be allowed to live," Kabuto moved fast. Faster than Sasuke was, and the old woman crumbled.

Sakura didn't have time to scream.

Particularly when the body disappeared in a puff of smoke to show a log with a kunai sticking out of it.

There was a cackle of laughter as the old woman jumped down from behind Sakura.

"Just kidding", she said, "I was only pretending to be dead..." she seemed to find this kind of thing

amusing.

The old woman looked at Sakura in a gauging way, but then back to Kabuto, "I don't know what group you're from, Nishoku-chan, but leave that man to me. I have an interest in him..."

Sakura would have objected, but she felt her Bunshin disappear and dashed back to face Kin and Zaku.

She looked behind her at the old woman, but only noticed her looking after her with some curiosity.

"Strange, that she noticed an enemy in danger..." Chiyo said to herself, "...Interesting, and I haven't had anything to do for a while..."

The old woman turned to Kabuto and smiled slightly, "You used to work with my cute grandson, Kabuto-kun. I wasn't really looking for information about him, but this is an interesting change of plans."

Sakura didn't bother to listen to anymore. She was too busy trying to get a hold of Zaku's arm so she could break it.

* * *

Apparently Orochimaru had been a very, very busy person while they had lost touch.

Jiraiya had to admire the effort that must have gone into this technique. Although...it was faintly disgusting to wonder...just how he had gotten the bodies to do that.

Well, he knew now just what had happened to those Kusa nin who had disappeared. Too bad Kusa was probably going to be destroyed anyways. He honestly felt bad about that.

With summons dismissed, all three Sannin were starting to conserve their energy for what they were considering would be a very long battle. Even with Tsunade's help, Orochimaru was a very clever person and a powerful ninja. He would have to be to have been able to perform the attack that he just had.

Jiraiya looked at the three coffins in front of him dubiously, but before he could perform a technique needed, Tsunade and crashed down from above and broken one of the coffins as it began to open.

"Jiraiya, Edo Tensei can be negated if you destroy the coffin before the corpse can get out!" Tsunade roared.

Edo Tensei...to think he had figured out how to do that... There were few jutsu that were truly forbidden in the world, but Edo Tensei was one of them for the simple reason that to perform it, another life had to be sacrificed. Most techniques, even the forbidden ones, were only called that because they demanded so much control or Chakra, that it would kill most people who tried it. That was one of the very, very few that were considered morally wrong by people.

That and the shinigami would usually get really, really mad when people started messing with his realm, and he had a tendency to do little nasties to people who tried. Jiraiya could remember reading about some incident when he had personally appeared, brought the person in question back to life for real just so that they would kill their would-be master. The shinigami seemed to be of the philosophy that eventually everyone would die anyways so why not allow someone to go back every so often. It wasn't like they weren't going to die again.

"Still trying to find ways around dying I see," Jiraiya muttered, "Ranjishigami no Jutsu!"

Jiraiya's hair lashed out and circled around the remaining coffins, destroying them, and he was nearly impaled by the suddenly sharp tongue that tried to stab him in the back. It was hard to tell if Orochimaru had done that on purpose or was just mad that one of his many trump cards had been made useless.

"So, for old time's sake," Jiraiya asked, "What's the point of this invasion? I know you don't really have revenge as a motive. What, were you bored or something?"

Orochimaru snickered.

"No, Jiraiya, I just need some new...bodies..." he said conversationally."There is a technique that I've nearly finished, and I want someone who has control over the Sharingan."

Jiraiya had heard rumors of this from his spy network. Orochimaru had, through some kind of unholy research, been trying to find a way to transfer his soul from one body to another. That thought alone was enough to turn his stomach, but what was worse was that he would gain the ability of the body he had taken. Permanently.

"So you hadn't finished it," That was interesting, his sources had said that he had.

"Oh, I finished it," Orochimaru snarled, anger suddenly appearing on his face, "But Uchiha Itachi managed to use some kind of genjutsu to block my mind."

So he _had_ joined with Akatsuki. His sources had been a little vague on that part.

"Is death such a horrible thing that you would stoop this low?" Tsunade asked, a sneer on her face.

A strange look appeared over Orochimaru's face, "I refuse to be reborn, Tsunade-hime. I will not cease to exist."

Orochimaru's tongue shot out, aiming for Tsunade, who jumped a little out of the way, and grabbed the tongue. Jiraiya had to wince from the pain that Orochimaru must have felt from being yanked, by the tongue, towards a woman who was about to pound you until there was nothing left to pound.

Orochimaru seemed to be trying to brace himself but Jiraiya decided to lend a hand. His hair shot out and wrapped around Orochimaru's throat just as Tsunade landed a punch to the stomach. Blood came out of this mouth and for a moment all three stood still.

"Jiraiya..." The voice was more of a strangled hiss than anything else, "Kill me, Jiraiya...do it now!"

* * *

The river was now completely frozen over, and it was a wonderful place for a battle. At least, from Haku's point of view. Dosu didn't seem to appreciate having an enemy who would sink into the ice and pop up at random places.

Haku had been working for a long time on this technique, as it was more of a modification of his Hijutsu: Makyou Hyoushou than anything else it had been a little worrisome to do it over such a large area. Even now, he could only manage about twenty or so feet of ice, and it looked like Dosu was starting to figure it out.

Haku appeared, throwing senbon at him, and diving back into the ice. Dosu made a sweet tune with the Melody Arm and cursed when he missed his target and managed to get a senbon in the shoulder. He had already tried to break the ice with little success, but his attacks were actually starting to wear away at it.

Haku hoped that he hadn't noticed this yet.

"You know, this is unnecessary," Dosu said, "Orochimaru-sama is actually interested in your power. If you surrendered now, you'd probably be welcome."

"And why would my friends and I want to join him?" Haku was genuinely confused. What did the Snake Sannin have to offer him?

"To meet your goals. All of you have things that you want. Orochimaru-sama can help you reach those goals," Dosu said still prepared to fight, "He had promised to heal my face. Kin and Zaku were both from minor villages that were wiped out, and they've achieved their hopes from gaining more power to avenge their families. I don't know what your goals are, but if you stop fighting us and join with us, you'll be one step closer to your goal."

Haku was silent as he considered, "...But this Orochimaru is standing in the way of our goal. My friends wish to reclaim Konoha, but your presence has made it that much harder."

"You speak of what your friends want, but what about you?"

"...I wish to help my friends," Haku said after a while, "And I wish to eventually have a family. But if with my death, I can help my friends achieve their goal, I will be happy. I have no interest in getting more powerful unless I need to..."

"Well, Kabuto can't say anything else," Dosu muttered and the melody arm swept the ice beneath Haku's feet. The ice, which had been pretty much unbreakable while Haku had been in it, cracked and broke easily. "Thought so."

Haku winced a little bit. That was a one-time only attack, and he had just been set at a large disadvantage. Well, he had found out the reason for this guy's interest in them, and he supposed that it was time to stop playing with experimental jutsu and to beat him. Besides, he had the information that he needed. Sakura might need help.

It was then that there was a surge of water and something jumped out, causing both Haku and Dosu to jump back and ready their weapons as the girl jumped on to the bridge.

She didn't wear bandages anymore, and was now wearing something that looked something like a black shirt and pants that were both very tight. Tight enough to make Haku blush slightly. She still had scales along her face and arms, but it seemed more even and less patchy.

Dosu didn't wait for an introduction. He aimed his arm towards her and sent a pulse of sound towards her. Isaribi jumped into the water and right behind him, sending a kick that Haku took advantage of. Senbon lodged themselves in strategic places and another kick sent him into the water.

"You could have defeated him before I came," Isaribi said, looking down.

"I wanted to know what he wanted," Haku said, "Do you think we should get him out?"

Haku didn't need to have his question answered. Dosu had already managed to jump up, clutching his Melody Arm, which had senbon in and would have lost all feeling by now, and was panting slightly.

"So there were more of you," he muttered, "You're not a group of missing nin are you?"

Haku shook his head.

"I suppose in some ways we are, and in others we're not," He said with something like a shrug, "At any rate, I'm sorry, but could you please surrender now? I really am in a hurry, and I don't want to kill you. Fighting would just take longer."

Dosu didn't move.

"Have it your way then," Haku sighed. The battle would be over shortly.

* * *

It was the end of the Yamanaka clan.

Ino clutched her younger cousins: Ai and Hoshi as close as she could as she sat with her head down under the genjutsu that her parents had made to cover them and realized this fact.

She hadn't been told anything until that morning when her father had set up the genjutsu around the flower shop and said that he would come and get her. They had a code that they had worked out when Ino was just a little girl, and that would be used in case there was an imposter. Ino hadn't argued. It wasn't her job to fight her parents. Particularly when it seemed they'd been planning this for a while.

Ino did wish that they hadn't though.

She might have been a ninja, but it seemed that she wasn't considered to be a strong enough fighter to do anything that wasn't looking after her cousins. Well, given her pathetic performance at the Exams that was understandable, Ino had thought as she watched her cousins play and listened for the sounds of a battle of some kind.

Actually, the whole thing hadn't been much of a surprise to Ino. She knew her parents actively were against the Hokage. She knew that they had spoken against him. She knew that, given the chance, they would have rebelled, and this was just the chance they had wanted. She just hoped they knew what they were doing.

In the Academy, Ino hadn't listened to most of the lectures. There had been magazines to read, girls to compare herself to, boys to check out, and flowers to read about, but she had understood one thing: no one went against the Godaime and lived. She still remembered what had happened to Iwa when Uchiha Sasuke and some other kids, including Sakura, a shy girl who Ino had wanted to talk to, had been kidnapped. The war had been brutal. Not that Iwa hadn't deserved it. Sasuke had been the only good looking boy around. Even Uzumaki Naruto, the loud-mouthed bratty kid who her mother and father had always warned her not to get too close to since he had been born in the Kyuubi Attack and might have some unstable Chakra, had been better than most people.

And that was just sad.

Still, the fact that the Godaime was a man who held a great deal of power had stayed with Ino, and while she, like most ninja her age, agreed with her parents, she also felt that they shouldn't let him know.

After all, defying the Godaime was like defying gravity. You could do it for a while, but eventually it would pull you back down, and if you had really tried, it would kill you.

The sight of ROOT running around, attacking anything that moved, and trying to keep her cousins quiet wasn't anything that Ino hadn't expected. The fear in her stomach was also something that she wasn't surprised by. It was a horrible thing to know that you weren't going to see your family again.

While this was going through her mind, something moved at the door.

"Ino!" It was her father's voice, "Ino open up, Princess."

She knew that it was ROOT. Her father had never called her Princess in private. He had had a less flattering nickname for her from when she was a little toddler who was rather overweight. She had pleaded with him not to refer to her as BonBon ever outside the house, but there was nothing she could do about at home. Inoichi had seemed to take pleasure in it, and after a while, it was a sort of code. Since only the immediate family knew anything about it, it was perfect.

And now she knew that he father was probably dead.

Ino hugged her cousins closer to her and closed her eyes, trying not to cry herself.

"Ino!" her father's voice called, "Open-"

But his voice was cut off with a sharp cry and another, almost alien one. Something black snaked into the room, and Ino prepared herself for whatever was happening. Should she surrender? Maybe if she did...her cousins would live...

Probably not.

"Get behind me," Ino hissed, drawing a kunai as the black shape began to take form.

Into Hideaki.

He was wearing what looked like a cheap pun of the Yondaime's haori and a very big grin on his face. There was also a mask that had been pushed up so that Ino could see him. His eyes took in Ino and her cousins, and the grin remained.

"Hello, Miss Gorgeous. Or do you like BonBon better? Sakura-chan usually dislikes nicknames that have to do with food, but that could just be her."

* * *

Sasuke performed a very complicated stunt that he probably wouldn't have been able to repeat if his life depended on it (which it might soon) to avoid the whip that seemed to be almost everywhere now. The stunt involved a handspring, jump back, hop on one foot to the side and twisting his body in a way that didn't seem possible. Having only used the Sharingan once before, Sasuke was not as skilled as Yumi was.

If he lived, he would talk to Jiraiya about investing in a sword.

He was a short range fighter, and honestly, he needed something to help him. He didn't care anymore that Naruto didn't need one. Besides, maybe if he had one he could wipe that smug look off of his face in a training session that focused on hand-to-hand combat.

"Katon: Hosenka!" Sasuke said and blew a series of small fireballs towards Yumi, but she moved quickly, only slightly singeing the sleeve of her uniform.

Yumi's whip suddenly wrapped around Sasuke from behind, pinning his arms together. Sasuke struggled, wide eyed, but wasn't able to move or get out of the binding.

"Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu," Yumi said, a small smile on her face as she watched his eyes light in recognition of the attack.

The flames rushed down the rope, engulfing Sasuke immediately. He didn't even have time to scream.

Yumi smile widened, but froze when the fire ceased to reveal a charred log.

"Kuso," she muttered, her eyes narrowed and her mouth set.

"So that's what you look like angry, now let's try a look of fear..." Sasuke's voice seemed to come from nowhere as the shuriken flew towards Yumi. She dodged easily, but had to dodge again to avoid them when they came back around.

"Soshuriken no Jutsu, you're rather well versed in Uchiha jutsu," Yumi remarked, as Sasuke jumped down. He was panting a little bit.

"Sorry, I didn't know you have it trademarked," Sasuke sneered, irritated with the fact that he had so exclusively studied the scroll Itachi had given him.

The whip came from nowhere from behind, and Sasuke was only warned of it a second before it hit. While he managed to not get impaled, he saw that it was going to wrap around and go for his face. Sasuke leaned back but misjudged the distance, and a crack appeared in the mask.

"Now that your stupid mask is gone..." Yumi muttered, "I want to see...what...?"

As the mask fell down, it revealed the crimson of the Sharingan.

The whip fell flat.

"You're..."

The rest of the mask fall to reveal Sasuke's full face. It was wearing a very ugly look and a cross between a glare and a smirk. He was amused at her shock that she could be fighting an Uchiha, worried that now the world would probably know who he was, and annoyed that he had broken his nice mask (which was brand new) and he was going to have to ask Jiraiya to make him another one and listen to his renditions about how useful masks were.

"Uchiha?" Yumi was obviously confused for the first time, "But...the only Uchiha who would have been your age..."

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" Sasuke yelled, aiming the fireball towards her. Alright, fine, Sasuke found himself thinking. Forget all attempts at hiding who he was.

He dashed forwards, throwing three kunai and taking out the Fuma Shuriken that was carefully folded up inside of his haori and concealed. He shook it and it clicked into alignment as he threw it at Yumi as she jumped to avoid the Gokakyu.

The whip whirled around from nowhere and wrapped around Sasuke, this time not harming him and the Shuriken went spinning off into nowhere.

"Uchiha Sasuke," Yumi said looking him over, "You've grown from the seven-year-old who was constantly following that man around saying 'Aniki, aniki'. I suppose you either were taken from Iwa by something else or sold as a slave. Your mother will be pleased to see you."

Sasuke tested the rope holding him. No, there wasn't a weakness.

"Don't bother. You're coming home with me, and we'll see what this foolishness about blood feuds is about, and who fed you lies."

"Kuso..." Sasuke cursed, struggling slightly.

It was then that everything changed.

One moment, Sasuke was struggling against his bonds and the next something black had jumped next to him, cut through the whip that was holding Sasuke captive and he was standing in the audience's seat.

"Go to your friends, Sasuke," The figure said, calmly pressing his forehead with two fingers, "They need you."

Uchiha Yumi stared with rage at the newcomer and she took an involuntary step forwards, forgetting everything else but him.

"You," she said, her eye's focusing on Uchiha Itachi.

* * *

Naruto and Sora had basically forgotten about using jutsu.

Both were attacking one another with all the ferocity that they could manage without completely losing themselves to the power that was trying to take them over. Naruto was vaguely aware that he seemed to have two tails, but he was more interested in not listening to the voice that was going on in his head, telling him calmly that the only way to win was to kill Sora and do it now.

Kyuubi was actually offended that someone had had the audacity to use his Chakra against him.

Sora and Naruto both jumped forwards, clawing, biting, kicking, and throwing punches left and right. Finally, Naruto started to slowly stand up.

"This...isn't...getting...anywhere..." he huffed.

"So...you...surrender?" Sora huffed back.

"...You're thicker...than I am..." Naruto growled.

The redness around him started to fade slightly but then it felt like Naruto had been hit on the head and he fell.

_The only sound was the sound of dripping water._

_**So you've returned, my despicable host.**__ A voice said and Naruto looked up into the eyes of the monster that had haunted his nightmares for nearly five years._

_He looked the same, and the intent was the same. Naruto could feel the promise of complete destruction pulsing from the creature as it looked at him, but he refused to run away in terror again._

"_You look as ugly as you did last time," Naruto said._

_**Brave words for a child who reeks of terror. **_

_Naruto clenched his teeth, knowing that the thing was right. He had to calm down or he would probably get suckered into doing something incredibly stupid. _

"_You know, dragging me here was kind of stupid. After all, if Sora kills me, you go down with me," Naruto said conversationally, in a way that he had seen Neji act when he had an indisputable argument_

_The Kyuubi snarled and a single paw ran against the cage, the claws making a scratching sound against the metal._

_**So, you demand my power?**__ It asked._

"_Nope," Naruto crossed his arms, "I want you to stop pushing it at me in this battle. I can fight Sora on my own."_

_**Then would you like to make a little wager? **__Kyuubi asked, __**if you defeat Sora, I will give you a small part of my power when you tell me to, and if you fail...you will allow me to do it myself. **_

"_Alright," Naruto's eyes widened and he put one hand to his mouth. The response had been out before he could even think. _

_He glared at the Kyuubi, "I didn't agree to that," he hissed._

_**Your body did. Oh, and I will tell you this, because Sora shares Chakra with me, I have influence on him just as I have on you. The only difference is that you have built up a resistance to me. I will be putting enough of my power into Sora to make him...interesting. I'll enjoy seeing just how much of a fight you can put up against me...**_

_Naruto suddenly felt himself being yanked hard from behind and cursed as he heard the soft laugher from inside the cage._

Naruto almost lost his head before he saw the claw coming towards him, but he jumped backwards, suddenly feeling exhausted. So, the Kyuubi had suddenly removed all his power other than the things that were just going to happen like the whole healing thing and his Chakra reserves. While the red cloak around him was quickly disappearing, the one around Sora was starting to grow thicker and a third tail was appearing. Naruto cursed and made some more Kage Bunshin.

He needed to hurry. From what little he could see, the more tails appeared, the more dangerous, and Kyuubi would cheat if he had the chance. Even if that wasn't really 'him', Kyuubi probably wouldn't mind having a six tailed fox running around wreaking havoc on Konoha.

"Hijutsu: Mushidama,"

Naruto whirled around halfway just in time to see the bugs rush past him and congeal around Sora's form. A burst of Chakra separated the shape and they flew backwards to the form that had stepped out from behind a tree.

"It always disturbed me how you treated your inferiors and enemies, Sora-san," Shino said softly, stepping forwards, "Hello Taiki, though I would prefer to call my ally by his proper name, Naruto."

* * *

Hinata was shocked as her younger sister embraced her, sobbing and laughing at the same time.

"I knew you'd come back. I knew that you'd take me with you!" she kept saying over and over while she hugged Hinata.

Honestly, Hinata hadn't been all that close to her younger sister. It hadn't been out of cruelty or dislike on either side. It was just that Hinata hadn't been able to hide her fear and disgust for clan matters, and Hanabi, even at a very early age, had been able to act like it didn't bother her, or at least to bottle up the emotions. Also, Hanabi was being trained personally by their father while Hinata worked alone.

The times they had met had be highly formal and usually with the whole clan around them. Maybe they were afraid that one would kill the other. After all, Hinata might be overlooked in favor of Hanabi because of Hinata's lack of power, but Hanabi might also be overlooked in favor of Hinata for tradition's sake. It had never much occurred to Hinata that Hanabi had looked up to her. Or that her absence had been missed.

"Hanabi...it's alright...I...I'm sorry I kept you waiting," Hinata said, not sure what to say. She glanced over at Neji, but she couldn't tell what he was doing behind the mask, probably looking awkward.

He wasn't really good with the rest of the Hyuuga clan, and Hinata distinctly remembered him referring to Hanabi as a brat.

Hanabi seemed to notice Neji for the first time as well, but didn't hug him the same way.

"Neji-nii-san," she said happily, "Most of the clan thought that you would go off on your own, but I didn't think so."

Both Neji and Hinata looked at each other in surprise.

"Hanabi-sama," Neji said, reverting to his more familiar term of addressing her, "What's going on? Is there a civil war going on between the Hyuuga on top of the invasion?"

Hanabi shrugged, "I guess so. We were at the arena, watching the Exams when it started, but when the fighting started, half the clan turned against Otou-sama. He told me to run, and to find safety..."

"It sounds like the Branch House took the opportunity presented to them to try to rebel," Neji said, crossing his arms and tilting his head a little.

Hanabi sniffed a little bit, "Otou-sama...do you think he's alive, Nee-san?"

She looked so upset that there wasn't anything that Hinata could do but tell her she did.

"Otou-sama was the most powerful fighter in the Hyuuga clan," she said, "Is there somewhere you were supposed to meet him?"

"No, I-" but whatever Hanabi was going to say was interrupted by a very loud explosion and lots of gas.

Everyone, including Hanabi, jumped to the defensive.

"Halt evil doers, and cower before my awesome skills! Oiroke no-"

"Oh no, not again!" Neji said, sending a punch to the figure and making it explode back, "I am never going to see that disgusting display again after the first time."

Hinata couldn't help the giggle from escaping.

It was a really funny story.

The figure fell back and the smoke cleared to reveal a boy about Hanabi's age with his brown hair tied back.

"Konohamaru?" Hanabi asked, looking incredulous.

"Isn't that the kid that Naruto said was following him around?" Neji hissed to Hinata, who shrugged.

"I think so," She said, "I don't remember a name..."

Hinata walked over to the fallen boy and carefully picked him up.

"Would you please tell me what you were doing?" she asked sweetly.

"You're attacking Hanabi! I'm going to beat you and then I'm going to repel all the invaders with the awesome jutsu that Taiki-nii-san gave me!" Konohamaru yelled, making a few swings at Hinata and missing since she was out of his arm's reach.

"Konohamaru...stop it," Hanabi said in a flat, dull voice, "You're just making yourself look stupider than you are."

Hayate coughed a little bit.

"This is interesting, everyone, but aren't we needed in another part of the town? If the Hyuuga Clan's internal problems are also coming to a head, we should leave them to fight amongst themselves."

Hinata opened her mouth but closed it.

"Alright," she said, "Hanabi, could you bring Konohamaru and come with us?" she asked, looking at the figure which was now a rock and sighed, "Naruto really shouldn't have trained him..."

"And he's gone..." Hanabi signed, "That idiot, he's going to go get help or something..."

"We're not going to be there when he comes back," Hayate said, taking on an air of command that Hinata hadn't known he had, "Konohamaru should be fine, and the Hyuuga situation needs to be reported."

Hinata nodded, keeping one hand on Hanabi's shoulder, "I'll take you to meet my new friends, Hanabi-chan," Hinata said with a smile, "They're a little strange sometimes, but they're very nice."

"It's interesting how you keep yourself out of that statement," Neji muttered.

* * *

"Asa Kujaku!" Gai shouted as he attacked, feeling the sixth gate opening up.

Baki wasn't able to dodge, and was thrown to the ground under the rain of fire and punches.

"Ha! See how the power of youth crushes all who do evil," Gai said, giving a thumbs-up to the world and allowing his teeth to sparkle. He had won, and without having to open the other gates!

Baki started to move, and Gai's hopes of being done and making it to his cute students quickly was disappointed. He raised his fists and prepared himself to open the last two gates. This was going to have to end quickly...

The opening of the gates was a painful process, and one that Gai didn't like to do often. For one thing, it could eventually shorten his life span, and he wanted very much to see his students promoted to high rankings. He had always wanted to have children, and he saw his students, particularly Lee, to be a sort of substitute for the children he never had, and like any father, he wanted to live to see them succeed.

The seventh gate was open.

"You're better than I thought you were," Baki huffed. "To manage to dodge my Kaze no Yaiba is pretty impressive..."

Gai grinned, "I am in the springtime of my Youth! Nothing shall stop me."

Baki smirked slightly.

"We'll see,"

The eighth gate was open.

"Kaze no Yaiba: Shippuuden!"

"Yuukoku Ryuu!"

Both attacks were shouted as loud as possible, but after that there was silence. The hurricane wind died down and the roar of the attack known as the evening dragon faded, leaving nothing but echoes and a few leaves driven by the wind.

* * *

**********Omake: Just where did that Shuriken go anyways?**

Rock Lee looked around him at the five Chuunin surrounding him. He was winded from his dash and had already been knocked about quite a bit. He looked around, but didn't see any way out, even if he jumped, there was some kind of bird summon thing right above him.

"I will never surrender!" Lee called, punching one fist in the air.

The Chuunin grinned.

"That's fine with us," one of them said.

It was then that the sixth sense that Gai had told Lee to work on told him to jump as high as he could. The Chuunin, thinking this was some kind of attack, either braced themselves or started to make the symbols.

Then the shuriken went spinning through the group, quickly scattering everyone who wasn't cut by the sudden attack.

"Where did that even come from?" one of the Chuunin looked around wildly.

"I guess the shuriken kami has a thing for green jumpsuits?" it sounded more like a question.

Lee, taking advantage of his good fortune and praying that he would never have to do something so unyouthful again, had made a mad dash for a different part of Konoha, hoping then if he did run into more Chuunin, they would be on his side.

* * *

_I'm really, really sorry for the long wait. I've been going to a community college, and a university is slightly different. Also, I forgot to save and I lost seven pages. It was my fault, not the computer's this time. I've also been having something of a love affair with some other anime (like Fairy Tail) and I'm still being harassed into that DN/HP cross so I've been a little busy. _

_Once again, I'm extremely sorry, and I'll do better (hopefully) next time. _

_Shikamaru: While the second part of the manga really pumped Shikamaru up, I always liked him better as more of a tactical genius rather than a fighter. Not everyone should be extremely strong, and Shikamaru was actually more interesting when he was able to think his way out of things rather than be some mighty fighter. Also, I have to admit, I just don't like him as much as some people. I don't have anything against him...he just doesn't interest me much... _

_Edo Tensei: While I think that it was a good idea, I also think that it relied a little too much on the shock factor. I could be wrong, but that's what I saw as the main flaw in that technique. Besides...I can exercize some power as an author..._

_Orochimaru's Death Issues: It seems to me, by looking at Orochimaru's flashbacks, that his issues with death happened after Saratobi told him that his parents had been reborn. I think that it might be that Orochimaru had less problems with _dying _then with being reborn as a completely different person, never being able to meet his parents and friends again, and perhaps doing things that he would have been completely against. Therefore he is willing to do just about anything to keep from dying and keep his identity, which he sees as his existence. This is possibly purely my Catholic interpretation (you can't be neutral all the time) but it makes sense to me. This is probably the only semi-religious reference that I'm going to make in this story. I dislike using something to vent my feelings, but it was the only thing that made sense and wasn't 'he's doing it for the evilz' or something._

_Orochimaru: I'm sure you've guessed what I'm doing, and I'm going to tell you my reasons right now. I don't have a use for Orochimaru after this arc, and I want to keep some parallels with the original story. I have a kind of respect for Orochimaru, and I really didn't want to demote him into some kind of cannon fodder miniboss or something. He was actually one of the more dangerous antagonists in the show, but his motives are never clear. Also, it limits the amount of villains that I have. I left Orochimaru alone in my first draft, and I started to lose track of my characters. I have limits!_

_Translations_

_Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei - Summoning: Impure Resurrection Technique: A forbidden technique that requires the user to sacrifice themselves or someone else in order to preform. This technique resurrects one person from the dead, along with their memories, skills and kekkei genkai. The soul is also brought along, causing the reanimated individual to have free will. Another seal must be added in order to control the person._

_Ranjishigami no Jutsu – Wild Lion's Mane Technique: This technique uses Chakra to temporarily enhance the head's metabolism and manipulate the hair that grows longer as a result of this. There is also chakra flowing through the lengthened hair, making its hardness comparable to that of steel wire. By thickly bundling the hair, its strength is further increased, also increasing its destructive power. Its name may come from the fact that, as seen just before striking Pain, it takes the shape of a lion's mouth._

_Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu – Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique: The user breathes fire along a cord or any other type of long object, which rush forward in straight line catching the enemy on fire. The flames are meant to target, and assault the enemy's upper body just like a projectile weapon. _

_While the technique is shown in the anime to be even larger and more devastating than Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique (and being able to melt rock), in the manga it is shown to be nothing more than a small burst of flame running along a line of wire. _

_Soshuriken no Jutsu – Manipulated Shuriken Technique: With this technique a translucent string, both elastic and highly durable, is attached to a shuriken, making it possible to alter its path after having thrown it. An expert will have the ability to freely glide the shuriken in any direction with just a single movement of their fingertip. The first attack, challenging the enemy, is avoided and after a timelag of several seconds, it will come from behind. Depending on the performance, the possible tactics can be infinite. _

_Fuma Shuriken: a large, four-bladed shuriken possessing pre-eminent sharpness and lethality. This type of shuriken is considered characteristic to the famous F?ma clan, after whom they were named and who possibly developed them. However, their use is not limited to this clan. Its four blades can be collapsed for easy storage, leading to its nickname Shadow Windmill (?, Kage Fusha). _

_Hijutsu: Mushidama – Secret Technique: Insect Sphere: By using the destruction bugs, members of the Aburame clan surround their opponent with thousands of bugs, making a globe of bugs around the opponent beforehand to completely trap them. Once trapped, the bugs would normally drain the chakra and swallow their victim. The bugs covering the victims body prevent movement, but if they escape, the bugs will follow them. _

_Asa Kujaku – Morning Peacock a certain-kill taijutsu born from the philosophy of Might Guy. The principle of this taijutsu is to rapidly increase the body's abilities by opening up to and including the sixth of the Eight Gates, and then to strike the enemy down with countless punches. The technique is started by kicking the enemy into the air, which for most would be an instant kill. The user then jumps into the air in a distinctive stance and begins punching the enemy repeatedly. The speed of the punches is so fast that they are set ablaze by sheer speed and friction. This creates a peacock-like fan of flaming chakra around the opponent. Once the attack is finished, the enemy will be sent crashing back to the ground, covered with the attack's aura. _

_Thank you for your support!_

_Review!_

_~Pryotra_


	28. Part 2: Illusions

_Author's Corner: I have more fanart! I'm a kind of arrogant person, and I sometimes search for 'Hakumei/pryotra' for the sake of my ego. I found a really lovely picture that someone drew! The link's on my bio, and I hope you like it! I'm about as thrilled as I was when I found my story had been recommended on ! _

_On Gai: I knew some of you were going to be annoyed. Baki is not a weak fighter. He managed to kill an ANBU, or former ANBU as the case may be. Killing him would not be an easy task, even for someone who went up against Akatsuki. Besides, did I say anything about killing Gai? I said earlier that as long as a character is useful, I'll spare him. Gai is extremely useful, but...Lee needs a little incentive...so I need to abuse Gai a little._

_I can't wait to see what happens when I really do kill some of the people I'm planning on..._

_It's funny, but most of you didn't catch one of the other things that I'm going to do. Probably because...well...it's not something I've done, but it is kind of necessary for me to go along with canon in my...strange way._

_Thoughts on the Manga: Seriously, I'm revising Konan's part in this story just to give her more importance. Kishi...that was the most beautiful chapter...I'm in tears... Madara, I'm sorry, but I really just don't respect you. Even with that new mask. I keep thinking 'Tobi is a good boy'. Kabuto...you are creepier than Orochimaru. Congratulations. This arc...I love it..._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns no part of Naruto, even if she is in something of awe of the series. It is probably a good thing that she doesn't since her head would probably get so big that she wouldn't be able to fit through doors anymore, and that would be a bad thing for getting to class..._

_Thanks to Ibby-kun (MegaB) for Betaing for me!_

_**The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.**_

_**-Abbie Hoffman **_

* * *

Uchiha Madara was a man who was usually behind the situations in the world. He had caused most of the turmoil in Kiri. He had been behind the formation of Akatsuki. He had been behind the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha. Now, he watched another part of his grand design.

He had also been behind the current war that was now raging, and everything was going according to his plan, and his alone.

Madara sat on the head of his own statue, looking at the smoke as it rose from Konoha and smiled behind his mask. He had done well by making sure that those children remained unseen. They were acting as his perfect agent in this. Not that they knew it, and they would survive this battle. The only thing that annoyed him was his loss of the pawn of Orochimaru. Jiraiya or Tsunade would have killed him by now. A tragic loss, but one that he could compensate for.

The loss of Itachi on the other hand...well, he had guessed a long time ago that he wasn't anywhere near as loyal as he acted, but he did contribute to the whole plan. Even his defection did, but it was a little depressing to see a relative with so much potential disappear from his control. He would have put Itachi in a place of power too. Then again, they did have so much in common, so it was Madara did understand, and, from his point of view, there were no hard feelings in this. It was just the way it was.

Madara stood up; he had other aspects of his plan to prepare for. He also had to go get his little underling. After all, that man had a tendency to do very...unpleasant things if he was allowed on his own, and his role was over for now. He had best remain safe and sound in the shadows of minor villainy.

Konoha wasn't the main focus anymore. It was just another little village that was to be used and deposed of when he was done. Danzou had actually been starting to show signs of being a possible problem. That man had always been a little difficult to predict. Madara hadn't even been sure that he was going to murder the Sandaime the way that he was supposed to.

Well, things were going as planned, and Konoha was going to be relegated back to its puppet status that it had gained for him.

Madara smirked as his eyes traveled to the statue that was opposite of his.

It was wonderful to be able to think that way.

* * *

"You're stripping." Tayuya's voice was flat as Kimimaro shed his haori and loosened his shirt so that it fell, revealing his bare chest.

It was a pain to fight with his shirt on. After all, being a fighter who pulled his own bones out made it difficult and slow. He had the chance to pull out his spine earlier, but being that he was taking on four at the same time, Kimimaro was going to have to prove just how powerful he really was. He had been drinking milk all day for this. Chances were he wasn't going to be getting too tired to fight before he had the chance to crush these guys.

He reached behind him and began to pull on the bone that was protruding, watching as the four stopped moving for a second as they stared in horror as Kimimaro slowly pulled out his own spinal cord. He was kind of enjoying this. For a brief moment he wished he could pull his skull out along with it the way he had once when training. Even Tsunade had turned pale when she saw that.

But two whips were enough to make the spider guy turn white.

"Did he just...pull out his spine..?" One of the two heads of the pale boy asked, "I mean, when I saw him holding a bone whip I didn't think..."

These guys were some to talk. That guy had two heads.

"I've had enough of waiting!" One of them, a large boy who was obviously short range yelled, "I'm going to kill him myself."

He ran forwards, looking like he was going to crush Kimimaro with his bare arms, but then he started to make symbols.

"Doton Kekkai: Doro Domu!" He yelled.

Kimimaro jumped straight up into the air, using both whips to crack the earth as it moved towards him. Landing on the side of a building, he dashed forwards. He was out of the range of the attack, but that didn't mean that he didn't have to worry about another one.

The girl's ogres looked dangerous, but she hadn't attacked yet. She seemed more interested in seeing him move and waiting for an opportunity. Very well. Kimimaro hated to make someone wait after all. Using his other whip to block a sudden attack from the fat boy (Wasn't it Jirobo?) that had jumped up to meet him and was surprisingly fast, he made a nice noticeable opening for someone to take.

It wasn't the girl who took it. It was the guy with the extra arms.

"Kumo Nenkin!"

Kimimaro jumped to avoid the golden thing, but somehow ended up in the crushing grip of Jirobo.

Kimimaro didn't wait for him to activate the attack. He knew what he was doing, and at that time he honestly didn't care. He wasn't going to allow himself to be beaten. Besides...he wasn't as squeamish about killing people as the others were. Maybe it was because he was older. Maybe it was just because he would honestly do anything if it helped them.

It was less of an attack then it was the jetting out of spikes from all around his body, Jirobo stiffened and went limp, falling off of him. Kimimaro landed on his feet and dashed towards the spider boy, jumping once to avoid the golden arrows that were aimed at him.

One down three to go.

* * *

"Shino!" Naruto almost yelled.

Shino nodded, "It's nice to see you again, Naruto-kun, but I would rather talk after we have incapacitated Sora."

Naruto nodded, he didn't have time to worry too much about Shino's loyalties. He was helping him at the moment, which was enough for him. "Right. Your family's special technique is allowing those bugs to eat Chakra right?"

"Among other things,"

Naruto grinned, "Good. How much can they eat?"

Shino seemed to understand where this was going.

"Not enough of the Kyuubi's Chakra to immobilize him."

"How about enough to keep him from going past this stage?"

The thing that had been Sora thrashed against the insects that were surrounding him and the tail that had been starting to grow seemed to have stopped. It had four fully formed tails that were swaying in a dizzying pattern around his head. He had fallen completely to a crouch and he almost looked like a fox, complete with long ears and a wide mouth. The only problem was the fact that its face was flat like a person's and there was something horribly like awareness in its glowing white eyes.

Naruto felt his stomach clench but ignored it. He had spent too much of his life in a slight fear that this thing since he was seven. Yeah, he called it Fuzzy Wuzzy, made fun of it, and was always insulting it, but he was scared of it. Naruto wasn't going to run from it anymore, and he would face and defeat this form of it.

After all, if he couldn't work with some cheap copy, how could he call himself the leader of Hakumei? The organization meant to spell the end of Danzou's reign?

"I think I can manage that for a short time," Shino nodded.

"Alright, I'll try to get this done quick than," Naruto said, dashing forwards.

Sora wasn't distracted by Shino's bugs enough not to see him, and he attacked, all four tails lashing out and a clawed hard reaching for him. The attack hit Naruto directly, but instead of falling to the ground, he exploded with a blast that forced even Sora back a little bit. From above, two Narutos fell. One of them holding what looked like a sphere of energy in his hand.

"RASENGAN!" Naruto yelled as he plunged down to meet it.

The Sora-Kyuubi looked up in time to see Naruto crash down on him, and managed to get the thing in the face.

Naruto jumped off, landing on his feet a little ways back with his arms slightly raised, ready to fight.

Sora shook his head rabidly as though to clear it and growled a little bit.

"Ah, come on," Naruto grumbled, "I hit you in the face. At least look a little more unhappy about it than that!"

Sora just roared at him, and jumped to attack. Naruto didn't quite get away in time, and he landed next to Shino clutching one arm.

Naruto decided that he now had a new reason to hate Kyuubi. He broke all the natural laws of how things were supposed to get wounded. A hit to the face should have won. He gritted his teeth and nodded to Shino.

If Rasengan alone wasn't enough, he'd have to find a better way to do it, but Sora wasn't going to wait. The tails suddenly stretched out, and managed to hit both of them. Shino dissolved into insects and Naruto suddenly melted into a clay like substance which made the tail stick into it.

Naruto appeared in another tree, laughing madly.

"That's my Nendo Bunshin!" He grinned, "It'll basically absorb your attack along with whatever you were using to attack with. Not that you actually understand me."

"You seem to like Bunshin based attacks, Naruto-kun," Shino said, appearing next to him.

Naruto shrugged, "I'm good at them. It's funny, since as long as you have some of the element around, you don't actually have to have any kind of affiliation with the element."

"I see,"

Naruto dodged another attack from the Sora-Kyuubi.

"Naruto-kun, Sora is beginning to stabilize," Shino told him.

"Don't buy it," Naruto muttered, "He's not the real Kyuubi container, and the Kyuubi's trying to get you to take your bugs back."

Shino looked at Naruto sharply at the statement that Sora wasn't the true Kyuubi container, and Naruto mentally cursed. He shouldn't have known that.

"How-" Shino began, but Naruto cut him off.

"I have an idea," he said, grinning.

* * *

Itachi was a little taller than he had been the last that Sasuke had seen him, and he looked a little more tired. What really surprised Sasuke though, was the uniform that he was wearing. Black with red clouds that sailed along, like the newly risen sun had just hit them.

It was the uniform of Akatsuki.

Sasuke didn't know that much about the organization, mostly because Jiraiya's sources got a little vague on that point. He knew that they were an organization that was composed of missing nin from pretty much every major village and a few minor ones. Their motives were unclear, and even Jiraiya had never managed to get a successful mole in there. There was one more thing that Sasuke knew about Akatsuki for certain.

They were after the Jinchuuriki.

Sasuke wasn't sure just what to think. On the one hand, Sasuke had wanted to see his brother, but...was he after Naruto and Gaara?

Some of his uncertainty must have shown on his face because Itachi spoke again.

"Sasuke, I'll explain everything to you later. You cannot win against Yumi yet. Go and help your friends," the words were soft, but the command was very much present.

Yumi seemed to regain her movement faster than Sasuke and the whip began to move again. This time towards Itachi. Sasuke had a brief feeling that he could have crept up behind her and attacked, and she wouldn't have noticed, but something about the way Itachi had told him to go made him jump towards the ring around the arena, avoiding the Sannin battle overhead, which seemed to have reached a standstill.

It was denying all of Sasuke's urges to go back and pound Yumi to the point of insensibility for daring to hurt Sakura, but there was a more important decision for him to make.

He had to warn Hakumei.

Akatsuki worked in pairs. If Itachi was a member, than there was another member around here somewhere, and Sasuke didn't know where or who they were. He had to warn the others. If Akatsuki was here, it just changed this entire game. As messed up as everything had been, there was still of chance of their winning. Danzou hadn't really been prepared other than paranoia security. It had been enough to spare Danzou's hide, but Konoha wasn't organized for an attack, and with the double attack from Suna and Oto, it was even worse.

The only problem was that no one knew who to fight.

Oto, Suna and the rebels wanted Konoha, but none of them wanted it for the same reason. Therefore they fought each other, helped each other, and were generally in each other's way. Akatsuki wasn't interested in this kind of thing. They only appeared when there was a Jinchuuriki close by.

Sasuke jumped into some of the trees that were surrounding the arena and looked around. He could see what looked like an attack going on from the right, and with the sheer amount of yelling, it sounded like Naruto. Well, 'Leader' was as good as anyone to start with.

Sasuke headed in that direction. Keeping his head down and moving fast. He stopped on a tree above the seen and didn't hesitate when he threw the two exploding tags at the giant fox thing.

Naruto and Shino jumped back and Naruto landed next to him.

"Hey, Arashi, when did you get here?"

"Just now. What's with the Kyuubi thing?" Sasuke jerked his thumb at the screaming fox.

"That's Sora," Naruto nodded, "We now know who tore those people to shreds in the Exams!"

"So Danzou decided to play mad scientist. How...interesting," Sasuke supposed that if he couldn't have the real Kyuubi vessel a substitute should work, and there had been a lot of Chakra floating around after the attack, at least that's what Itachi had said...

Itachi!

"Shippuu, there are at least two members of Akatsuki here," Sasuke said, mentally cursing Sora the Distraction.

"Akatsuki!" Naruto did start cursing, "What's _Akatsuki_ doing here?"

"I don't know, but all we need is a joint Kumo-Iwa invasion, and we'll probably much have everyone represented," Sasuke growled.

"This changes everything," Naruto sighed and both of them jumped to another branch to avoid one of Sora's tails as the fox jumped, trying to reach them, "Shino, can you still use your bugs to limit the Kyuubi's Chakra?"

"I think so," Shino called over, "But you and Sasuke-san are going to need to be quick. This isn't good for them."

Sasuke looked over at Naruto quickly.

"He knows who we are," Naruto said with a shrug.

"I noticed." Sasuke said, glaring at Naruto, "I'm more interested in _why_ he knows who we are."

"I'll ask him when Sora's not trying to kill us,"

"Fair enough," Sasuke nodded, "Then let's get this over with and find the others."

One of Sora's tails came out of nowhere, and Sasuke and Naruto both jumped for cover. Shino wasn't so lucky. With a gasp he staggered back, holding one arm as the bugs around the Kyuubi suddenly jumped out and surrounded their host.

Sora jumped to attack, but was stopped by the barrage of small fireballs that made him jump around a little bit to dodge them. That give Sasuke just the time that he had needed to jump down, grab Shino and pull him to safety.

"Change of plans," Naruto said, looking at the wound. The Kyuubi's Chakra always made things at least ten times worse. Even a glancing blow could turn into a real problem thanks what was basically a poison, "Get Shino out of here. We have that safe point. Then try to find Sakura."

"But-"

"But nothing. I can handle Fuzz-butt on my own. Get going!"

Sasuke gave Naruto a dark look, but nodded all the same. In a moment, he was gone, and Naruto was facing Kyuubi alone again. The last thing that Sasuke heard from Naruto were the words.

"Alright, it's you and me, just like at first,"

* * *

It wasn't a big enough room to really let loose. Zabuza would have killed for a bigger one, but this was better than nothing. To fight Kisame again...now that was some kind of gift.

He grinned as he dashed forwards again, swinging the sword, which slid against the wall with a very satisfying sound. Kisame did the same, grinning like a madman. Both swordsmen clashed and jumped back.

"This is like old times, huh, Zabuza?" Kisame grinned.

"Only this time, I'm seriously going to kill you," Zabuza laughed.

"You two are actually starting to scare me," Muttered the blond, Yugito, starting to play with the bars that it looked like Kisame's sword had...shaved through.

Zabuza wasn't really paying any attention to her though. It was time to kill the one who had broken up everything.

Miyako was going to have her revenge.

"Suiton: Bakusui Shoha," Kisame said calmly, forming the symbols.

Zabuza barely had enough time to prepare for the wave that crashed down on him, and Yugito seemed to be bracing herself.

The gush of water that Kisame spat out of his mouth almost was enough to make Zabuza get crushed against the wall. There were no windows in the hallway, but Zabuza managed to ride the current with his sword so that he forced open another door, and into an office, than he jumped on the wall, and to the roof. Water fell from the open window of the office like a small river was in there, and Kisame smiled as he looked up at him.

"Good jump," he said.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu," Zabuza hissed as a thick fog appeared.

Kisame laughed, "Oh, come on, Zabuza. I know that technique just as well as you do, and I'm just as good as using it and fighting in it as you are."

Zabuza smirked, and moved towards his voice. He could hear Kisame's voice, his breath, his heartbeat. There wasn't a sound that Kisame made that wasn't betraying him. He had been working on this technique. It had been for the Mizukage, but this would work too. Besides, he needed to have a test subject with some actual power to play with, or he'd never know the full power of the Sairento Kiringu.

He jumped off the roof, landing silently and dashed towards his target. Kisame was standing in the same place, his sword ready, and Zabuza struck. He felt the satisfying pressure of blade against something solid and dug in. There was a gasp and a puff of air and Zabuza was left staring at the log.

Zabuza jumped up just in time to miss Kisame's attack as he attacked from above, trying to...shave...him in half. The fact that that sword shaved people still really, really upset Zabuza. He dashed around, and tried to attack from the back, only to find himself blocked and swung the sword around the other way, jumping to avoid the undercut.

There was an explosion from above and both men jumped back as Yugito Nii jumped down, but she wasn't alone. Beside her was the spectral form of a large cat with two wave tails that snarled at both of them.

"Hey, you said that Taiki sent you, right?" she asked Zabuza. "I guess I'd better make good my promise then."

"I can kill him just fine on my own," Zabuza growled, "Go kill someone else."

Kisame leaned forwards, apparently very interested in the conversation.

"Men are such babies," Yugito sighed, "But it's not like there's a shortage in people to fight. I'll leave you boys to it."

Zabuza wasn't sure if he should be offended or just ignore her. She was kind of irritating. It must have been overconfidence from the giant two tailed cat.

Zabuza decided that he could pummel her after he was done with Kisame. Besides, she was in Hakumei's debt now.

Maybe she could be their sensei next mission. That would be fun to watch.

* * *

Uchiha Yumi, the hope of the Uchiha clan. That was what she was now, and that was what she had always seen herself as, even before everything had changed.

Itachi could remember when she was younger, and they had first heard of their engagement from their respective families. Itachi hadn't much cared either way, so long as he was able to spend time with Sasuke when he had the time. Yumi hadn't been so uncaring.

She hadn't liked Itachi much, seeing him as somehow soft despite the power he had been born with, and Itachi had known for a fact that she had hoped to be married to Shisui. He also knew that they still saw one another after the engagement was announced, and probably would have continued once Yumi and Itachi were married. Itachi hadn't liked it, but he had decided to let it go without mentioning it. Yumi would have told him that both his and her parents had had lovers, and there was nothing wrong with it.

Yumi believed in strength and the clan, and while she respected Itachi for the strength that he was born with, she was more interested in Shishou because of what he believed and the fact that he used what strength had had for the benefit of the clan. They would have been a match made in politics. Yumi would have remained in the arms of her lover and Itachi's best friend, and Itachi would have grown more and more distant from everyone other than his little brother and perhaps any children that he and Yumi managed to have.

Still, it was strange to face her like this.

"It's been some time, Yumi-san," He said, looking at her evenly, "You've grown more powerful with your metal techniques."

"How dare you even show your face here. You're a traitor to your own family," Yumi's eyes blazed red as the Sharingan spun.

"You look well," he said, "I would prefer not to fight you. I am only here to find my brother. I have no interest in getting involved with the clan politics again."

"You filth, I'll show you what the power of a true Uchiha is!" The whip that Yumi had already infused with her Chakra during the battle with Sasuke flew towards him and was joined by another. It looked like Yumi was going to go all out for him.

But Itachi didn't have time to play.

The whips hit Itachi directly, and he dissolved into crows.

"Genjutsu," Yumi snarled, "You were almost as good as Shisui. I remember now."

The feathers formed into Itachi behind her, but Yumi didn't attack. She turned to face him, a slight sneer on her face. Even if she knew that she couldn't fight like this, she could still be verbally vicious.

"I'm sorry, Yumi," Itachi said softly, "I never meant to kill Shisui, but that does not change anything does it? He is dead, and if it weren't for me, he would still be alive. However, anything I feel doesn't change the fact that we are enemies. I will leave you here, Yumi. I have no interest whatsoever in fighting you."

The feathers were back, swirling and dancing, and Yumi stood alone, or at least it looked like she was alone. There was a sound behind her and Yumi turned...to see Shisui.

"Shisui. No, you're dead," Yumi said, taking a step back.

Shisui, stepped forwards, his hair obscuring his eyes.

"Yumi...you're weak..." The apparition muttered, "I always thought you were so strong..."

"You can't be!" For the first time something like fear glittered in her crimson eyes.

"You...aren't worthy of the name Uchiha," The thing looked up, its eyes a blank dead white and blood dripped down its face.

The scream that Yumi gave was never heard.

* * *

"Do it now," Orochimaru's strangled voice was met with complete silence, "What are you waiting for, Jiraiya! I can't-"

Orochimaru made the choking sound again and sort of twitched a little. When the twitching was over, the smile was back and he looked like he was going to try to vomit. For a second, Jiraiya was completely confused, then he remembered something he had heard about his old teammate learning a technique that allowed him to basically shed his sick and come back with his wounds healed.

The snake obsessed guy would have to have found a technique like that.

But that wasn't right. One minute he was pleading for death and the next he was continuing like nothing had happened. Then there was that twitching...

But there were more important things to think about. Namely the fact that Orochimaru had just slithered out of his own skin and Tsunade had let of the...body's...tongue and had was about to start pounding him into the ground, mental problems and all.

Well, that was one way to solve the problem, and it seemed like it was probably the best one. He would keep Tsunade from killing him. Orochimaru had some questions to answer.

He dashed forwards, blocked the strike that Orochimaru had aimed for his side and sent a kick that was also blocked. Tsunade sent a punch that Orochmaru had to dodge (only someone with a death wish would block one of her punches) and he was attacked by Jiraiya's hair.

Orochimaru's tongue shot out and deflected it, but he heard the grunt of pain that accompanied it. Also, his movements weren't the same as before. Jiraiya had sparred with Orochimaru more that he cared to remember. His movies were always fluid and carefully timed as well as rapid and hard to predict. Now, Orochimaru seemed to be...twitching somewhat, and he wasn't using his more powerful attacks.

It was almost as if his body wasn't doing what he told it to. Almost as if he was somehow being distracted by something.

"Tsunade," Jiraiya started.

"I saw," she said, "But I'm still going to beat him up for a while. Then I'll examine him to see what's going on."

Jiraiya dashed forwards to meet the charge that Orochimaru was making and allowing a swirling ball to appear in his hands while Tsunade ran behind him. The ball suddenly seemed to ignite and Jiraiya's eyes took on a very hard look to them.

"Katon: Goen Rasengan!" He called.

Orochimaru was attacking too. As he ran, he coughed, and a sword flew from his mouth only to be grabbed.

"Kusanagi no Tsurugi!" He snarled.

The sword gave Orochimaru more of a reach, but the heat of the Rasengan made him move his arm slightly, it was that moment's hesitation that allowed Tsunade to jump, use Jiraiya was a pivot and hit Orochimaru with a round house kick in the face before he had time to dodge.

The kick, laced with Chakra, sent Orochimaru flying into the seats with a crash that make Jiraiya almost fall over, particularly with his aching head that had just been used by Tsunade.

Orochimaru didn't get up.

Both ran over and looked down, braced for any kind of trick.

"Is he..." Tsunade started.

"I don't think so," Jiraiya shook his head. "It would have taken a lot more than that to kill him, even if he wasn't fighting right."

"Do we kill him?" Tsunade asked.

Jiraiya shook his head.

"No, he should be out for a while, we'll take him to Hinata. There's something I want to see,"

"You mean," Tsunade's eyes narrowed, "I don't believe it. There's no way..."

"We won't know until we check. If I'm wrong, we kill him." Jiraiya's eyes were cold.

Tsunade looked at their unconscious teammate and nodded, "Just to be sure."

* * *

Lee had been running for about fifteen minutes, dodging, fighting, kicking and hiding from everyone, when he stopped and started to feel ashamed of himself. He had left Gai-sensei, the only person who had ever seen him as anything more than a complete freak (other than maybe Haru, who had accepted being his Eternal Rival without even being upset) to fight along against enemies. Of course, Gai-sensei would be fine, but...how could he call himself a ninja if he left his comrade and teacher that way!

Lee turned around and started to head back, jumping into some bushes as he heard a group coming behind him.

He knew one of them by sight, he was Hayate, a sick looking man who Gai-sensei claimed was a true ninja in more ways than one, another was a Hyuuga Academy student who was running alongside two masked figures.

Suddenly both figures stopped.

"What's wrong, Nii-san, Onee-sama?" the girl asked, looking worried.

"Gesshoku, go with Hanabi," the other said in a very familiar voice, "I'll do it."

"Alright," the other said in a female voice, "Be careful, you don't know which side he's on."

"We don't know what side anyone's on other than us. That's why we all keep attacking each other. I've seen at least three pairs of Oto and Suma attack one other in disguise and calling it off. This was an incredibly stupid idea." The male muttered.

"Well, remember, we need to aid the West sector," The female said, "I'll see you soon."

The other nodded and then looked straight at the place were Lee was sitting. He could see the Kanji _Rasen_ on the blank white mask.

"You know, Lee, civilians really shouldn't be running around in this, even if they have been trained by Gai," Rasen sighed, "I'm surprised that no one's killed you already."

Lee stood up very quickly, pointing at the masked man.

"Show yourself to me and tell me whether you are friend or foe to Konoha!" He yelled, "I may not be a true ninja, but I will fight you to the death if I must."

"I'm sure you would, but we don't have time for that. I think Gai would like to see his prize student live to see what happens to Konoha," Rasen said, but anything further than they was interrupted when the mixed Konoha and Suna group attacked.

For a second, Lee was too busy digesting the idea of being Gai-sensei's prize student to react, but he got his wits about him very quickly. He sent a quick kick into the stomach of his attacker and a round house one into another.

Rasen had somehow managed to get himself surrounded, but he seemed to be doing fine and attacking with very light, glancing seeming blows that seemed to be causing a lot of damaged a few minutes after they hit. Actually it looked like the Juuken. Gai-sensei had once mentioned it as the special power of the Hyuuga clan, but no one without the Byakugen could use it.

Maybe it was some kind of style that was made in imitation of it...

One of the Suna nin through a kunai that Rasen dodged easily by jerking his head back, but it seemed to have cut the strings of the mask because it fell off, revealing the youthful face of Rasen.

"Haru?" Lee said, his eyes widening.

"I've had enough of this," Haru muttered, the veins that the Byakugan caused to appear tightening somewhat, "Hakke Hasangeki!"

He pushed on open palm towards the Suna nin and Lee could feel the pulse of energy that hit the man. He crumpled and Haru turned towards the others, jumped in the air and, and as the two others dashed towards him, spun in the air and managed to kick both of them. It looked like he had figured out how to use Juuken in his kicks as well since both of them collapsed after coughing up blood.

Haru smirked and looked around.

"No one coming. Good.," he seemed to be talking to himself.

"Haru, what-" Lee began.

"My name is Rasen no Neji. Haru is just a false name that I used on this assignment. My team and I were hired to aid an organization that your mentor was a part of in their attempt to retake Konoha."

Lee stared at him with wide eyes.

"I don't believe you! Gai-sensei would never!"

"Not even for the sake of his favorite student who would never be able to become a ninja because of the fact that the current government didn't want to exert the effort?" Neji said, a slight smirk on his face.

Anything more that he was going to say was interrupted by an explosion from behind Lee.

Both spun around and started running.

"I shall face you later!" Lee said, "And punish you for your misdeeds against Konoha!"

"Once we find your mentor and get you to safe place we set up for the civilians, you can do what you want," Neji said with a shrug.

The two kept running until they reached the place where Lee had last seen Gai-sensei. At first all that he saw was the figure of Gai, walking slowly away from what appeared to be a very dead body, looking winded and breathing hard, then three members of the Inuzuka clan dropped down and surrounded him.

Lee breathed a sigh of relief. The Inuzuka were always loyal to Konoha, and the fact that they were helping Gai-sensei just proved that Neji was a liar and unworthy of the name is his eternal rival. He'd have to find another!

"Maito Gai, you are under arrest as a traitor to Konoha," Hana Inuzuka said, her voice dead and her eyes avoiding his, "Please come quietly."

The world stopped spinning for Lee.

All his life, he had wanted to be a ninja and protect Konoha. He had enrolled in the Academy for that purpose, and it had broken his heart when he had been told that since he didn't have the ability to use Chakra, he would never be able to be a ninja.

When Gai had found him and offered to teach him, it had been a godsend. Finally, he would have a change to achieve his dream. He'd even found an eternal rival, like Gai-sensei and Kakashi. But everything had always been in hopes of one day becoming a proper ninja and fighting for Konoha.

All of a sudden, everything had fallen apart. Had Gai-sensei really betrayed Konoha like Neji had just said? This couldn't be real right? This had to be a joke!

The looks on the faces of Hana and her relatives said otherwise.

Lee was completely frozen, and he barely noticed as Neji jumped forwards and placed himself right besides Gai.

"Hold still," He barked and started to spin, "Hakkesho Kaiten!"

Lee watched numbly as the three Konoha nin were blasted off of their feet and Neji had already dashed forwards and hit them in the back of the neck.

"Element of surprise," Neji smirked, "the best thing in the world. They were too busy looking at you to notice my coming up."

Gai gave Neji a thumbs up.

"A stunning display of youthful prowess!" He yelled, and coughed a little bit, "I see your reputation is not given in vain!"

Neji nodded a looked over at Lee.

Lee dashed forwards and ran to Gai-sensei, the only person in all of Konoha who had ever thought that he, some orphan who turned up out of nowhere, had the potential to be great, and bowed, tears streaming down his face.

"I will help you fight against Konoha!" He yelled.

* * *

Konohamaru ran as fast as his small legs could carry him, ducking into alleys and trying to remain unseen as he neared his goal.

The Hokage Monument wasn't that far away now.

He had to get there quick, and tell the Hokage what he knew. Hanabi-chan...Hanabi-san...had said that those people were Hyuuga. So the invasion was being aided by traitors to Konoha?

Could Taiki-nii-san...

Possibly, but he had told Konohamaru that since he wasn't from Konoha, they might have to fight. Konohamaru knew that he should be ready for that. Even if he had to fight Taiki-nii-san, he wouldn't stop! He'd show everyone just how great the Grandson of the Sandaime really was.

Konohamaru sped down another alley only to find himself on the ground, looking up at the form of Inuzuka Tsume.

She was a threatening looking woman from far away, but now that he was close to her, her wild looking brown hair, black eyes and hard gaze made him shiver a little bit. If she was intimidating enough, the dog, or more of a wolf, that was with her, made Konohamaru even more nervous. It looked like it could have eaten him.

"What are you doing here, Konohamaru?" She asked, folding her arms, "Hokage-sama designated a place for your family. Don't tell me that you got lost."

"I...um..." Konohamaru started, "I...I have to talk the Hokage! I learn some of the identities of the masked people attacking us!"

Tsume raised an eyebrow, "And..?"

"I saw Hyuuga Hanabi talking to two of them, and she called them Onee-san and Neji-nii-san!"

Tsume froze.

"Are you telling me...that two of the attackers are Hyuuga Hinata and Hyuuga Neji? They were captured and killed by the Iwa squad that killed the Sandaime."

"I know! But that's what she said!" Konohamaru repeated himself, "Hanabi's got the Byakugan, so I don't think that she'd be wrong about her own sister."

"If that's true..." Tsume muttered, "We have to take those masked nin captive. If Iwa found some kind of way to brainwash them or wipe their memories... Come on, kid, I'll take you to the Hokage personally!"

* * *

Gaara never moved when he fought, at least, not if he could help it. He would stand with his arms crossed, giving mental commands to the sand. It was the same idea when he was fighting with his family. The only difference was that he really had to be more careful when he attacked. He didn't want to kill them.

Kankuro had two puppets out that he was manipulating, and Gaara was pretty sure that he had actually switched with a third. Temari had alright sent a few gales his way.

The only one who hadn't fought was Matsuri, who still hadn't managed to get out of his sand's grip. She hadn't managed to make a substitute. She was crying.

The other Suna nin had retreating a ways back, and the Nara had met them there, meaning that Gaara had plenty of room to fight without worrying about damaging anyone that he didn't mean to damage.

Temari and Kankuro were both trying to attack from close range and very quickly, in order to break through Gaara's protection, but so far it wasn't helping much.

A joint gust from Temari with a sudden attack from Kankuro caused Gaara's sand to come up around him again, but they didn't see the sand that was coming towards them with the end in a very sharp point. The point suddenly divided and shot towards the two of them. Gaara would make it wrap around them and hold them.

The Johyo appeared out of nowhere, soaring towards him and wrapping around everything, sand and all.

Gaara looked around to see Matsuri, who had apparently actually had had a replacement and shown more deviance than he thought she had by waiting until he was focusing on Temari and Kankuro.

She was actually fairly fast too. Had she been using a better weapon, she might have been able to actually attack him. It was too bad that the sand had broken through the Johyo easily.

"No," Matsuri murmured. There was no scream or anger, "Just when I had the courage to use the weapon..."

Gaara turned to her and sent a wave of sand to hold her, but he had to turn around to pay attention to what his siblings were doing when the sand that had already gotten on them told him they were about to attack.

He had to look at the sand to direct it best. After all, it was best to see a target before trying to hit it.

"Futon: Tatsu no Oshigoto!" Temari's voice sounded, and a whirlwind began at Gaara's feet.

Kankuro dropped down beside her.

"You really used that? I guess...I mean...even Gaara..."

Then the whirlwind started to look different. Brown started to be kicked up by the wind and it seemed to start to shift in direction until it wasn't a whirlwind any longer.

It was a sandstorm.

The wind didn't seem to be quiet so impartial anymore as it suddenly burst out around them, wrapping them in sand and destroying their ability to see. There was only one different spot in the storm. One where, despite the wind that rushed around him, Gaara stood with his shell around him, completely unfazed.

"I win."

* * *

**Omake: **Santa

"I saw him!" A nine year old Naruto told the others as they were opening presents, "I saw Santa Claus!"

Neji looked completely unconvinced, "You probably just saw Jiraiya. He's the kind to do that kind of thing."

"No, Ero-sennin was knocked out on the floor. I could see the little stars floating around his head and he had drool coming out of his mouth! Santa is the world's most powerful ninja!"

"Well, that would explain why he can get into everyone's house," Sasuke muttered, surprising everyone by backing up Naruto.

"But...Santa?" Sakura asked, her head cocked to one side.

"Ninja Santa. It does sound a little odd," Sai said after a while of thought, "I can see why he wouldn't want to tell everyone about it."

"It might make sense. After all, he wouldn't want to have everyone trying to challenge him or something," Kimimaro said, crossing his arms.

"Guys...we're talking about Santa Claus," Neji said.

"And he is an awesome ninja," Naruto said, nodding sagely, "I shall do my best to be good next year, and maybe he'll train me."

Meanwhile, Jiraiya said, nursing his aching head while Tsunade put an ice pack on it.

"Why did you have to hit me in front of the kids in that weird genjutsu?" He complained.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Tsunade sniffed, "I had Shizune dress up this year."

"Shizune doesn't hit like that!" Jiraiya almost sobbed.

"How would you know?"

"Er..."

It was then that the door opened and Shizune walked in and bowed low.

"I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama, but last night I think I overslept. I'm glad that you managed to get the presents downstairs to the kids without me."

Jiraiya and Tsunade stared at each other for a while, neither really knowing what to say.

They never did know just who had set up the presents.

* * *

_And that's a wrap. I'm so sorry for the ridiculously long wait for this chapter. Life's been hard with school and I've had a lot of writing projects due. (One of the drawbacks of a Literature degree) If I wanted to keep with my usual quality, I had to be slow._

_Also, I have this other story that I had to start for losing a bet that I'm working on. If you want to annoy my friends, and think the idea of a Death Note/Harry Potter crossover sounds interesting, please visit. I would love to see some familiar faces._

_Thanks for all of your support, and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and what ever other holiday you happen to celebrate, and a happy New Year!_

_Notes: _

_Kisame and Zabuza's backstory: From the last couple manga chapters we now know that what I wrote isn't completely right, but, well, I did write it before it came out, and it would be strange of me to change it. Please bare with me, and I'll do my best to keep close enough to canon so that I don't seem to be blatantly disregarding it. I like to play with canon, not to kill it. Unless of course a blatant disregarding is interesting._

_Yumi: To all those who thought that the Yumi I mentioned back in chapter 6 and the Yumi that exists now were the same person, congratulations. You all keep up so very nicely with my plot. Thanks for your attentive reading! _

_Kyuubi fight: Since I wanted to show how easily plans can go wrong, I made this diversion. In a lot of shows and anime, once the battles are set they are set, and usually people don't come in and come out the way that they do in real life. This was my entire movetivation for this. Also...Shino's bugs were definitely important. _

_Orochimaru: I think you're all pretty clear on what I'm going to do, so once again, I have been planning on this since chapter two. This was not a random plot twist that come from out of the clear blue sky, and I am not an Orochimaru fangirl in any way shape or form. I just have no more use for him as a villain, but found that there were other ways that he could be useful. _

_Bunshin and elements: I looked things up a little bit at one point, and characters that honestly have no affiliation with the elements used in Bunshin attacks can use them. Kakashi can pretty much use any kind he wants because he's copied the technique, but it seems that so long as he has the material necessary to make a specific kind of Bunshin he can do it._

_Tsume: I decided not to write her as an antagonist like I originally planned. After all, not everyone who's supporting Danzou is like my version of the Uchiha Clan. I wanted to show that the Inuzuka, while choosing the wrong side, still are the way they were before. Tsume wants to capture those kids so that they can return to their families or, in the case of Naruto, to their hometown. As the Inuzuka are characterized as being like dogs, they would consider family or 'pack' to be more important the pretty much anything else, and the village would be an extension. She honestly just wants to help them. _

_Gaara: He's probably the hardest of the fight scenes to do. Just because he really is powerful and I don't want him to squish his siblings into jelly._

_Translations_

_Doton Kekkai: Doro Domu – Earth Release Barrier: Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness: This jutsu traps the victims inside a self-repairing dome of earth which is almost instantaneously able to reform. Jirobo was able to absorb the chakra of anyone trapped inside. However, Jirobo's chakra was distributed throughout the dome, but not equally. Near the back (relative to him), his chakra was much weaker, making the dome weaker in that spot. _

_Kumo Nenkin – Sticky Golden Spider Spit: Kidomaru used this technique to harden the golden metal that releases like sweat. The weapons created from this process form the core of his style of fighting. This metal hardens like steel upon contact with air, so by chewing it in his mouth and changing its shape Kidoumaru can create weapons appropriate to each battle. Because it instantly hardens, direct attacks from a distance are possible. _

_Suiton: Bakusui Shoha – Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave: The user spits out a great volume of water from their mouth, swallowing up and crushing the enemy with the advancing surge. The user can ride the wave, allowing them to move at high speed, and attack the enemy, now swept off their feet, without fear of counter-attacks. The amount of water created is proportional to the amount of chakra used; when used with Kisame's enormous chakra, even a dry wasteland can become a small ocean. Afterward, the excess water can be used for additional water release jutsu. _

_Kirigakure no Jutsu – Hidden Mist Technique: This displacement technique is a specialty of the Ninja from Kirigakure, where one causes a mist to spring forth by lifting up some water, then goes in and out of sight at will from within the pearly-white realm. The mist's thickness is controlled by the amount of chakra kneaded into it. It can't fool the Byakugan, but, due to the mist being created with the user's chakra, any Sharingan-user will see the mist colored by their opponent's chakra, which will effectively hide the user from the jutsu. _

_Katon: Goen Rasengan – Fire Release: Flame Rasengan: Jiraiya's variation of the Rasengan. Jiraiya creates a normal Rasengan, then ignites it with a Fire jutsu. causing it to turn black and be surrounded with a ring of flames. He then hits the opponent, causing a blazing maelstrom of fire, reducing the victim to ashes. _

_Hakke Hasangeki – Eight Trigrams Mountain Crusher: A more powerful variation of Eight Trigrams Empty Palm. The user hits the target at close range with a powerful wave of chakra. The attack sends them flying back into a rock or wall, causing severe damage. _

_Futon: Tatsu no Oshigoto – Wind Release: Great Task of the Dragon: Temari swings her fan to the sky, causing a giant tornado to descend upon a target. This technique can be set up as a feint as it has a delayed activation. The technique alters weather conditions temporarily and attacks from the sky rather than from the person. The storm clouds that create the attack dissipate immediately after the tornado begins while the tornado continues in a highly concentrated state. _


	29. Part 2: Counterattack

_Author's Corner: There are some things that kind of shock me about fanfiction at times. One of them was when I was looking at my locations for hits and found out that someone was reading this from Antarctica. I am seriously impressed that someone from Antarctica would be reading this story. I...hope that with this and penguins they have a great time._

_There is something that I would like to complain about a little: I was on Tvtropes and found my story on it (which I'm completely thrilled about) but on it, someone had said that I 'trampled good ideas and shoved character development in the reader's faces' How? No, seriously. I want to know. There is nothing more valuable than constructive criticism. I want to write professionally, and I know it sounds totally selfish, but if you have something you don't like TELL ME! I am not ErinoftheCullenClan or Tara who wrote 'My Immortal'. I won't bite your head off for saying things that I'm doing that are weak. As long as you're not rude, I'll think about what you say. I might not agree, but I will consider it._

_I've also been looking over the first chapter and thinking about how eventually I really need to rewrite some parts of it (like the Hyuuga scene and probably put more of a foreshadowing about Madara's involvement so things don't seem ridiculously convenient) to make them more up to standard. Also, since the manga has, in a lot of ways, spun off of my ideas, I'm going to have to make this even more AU then before. I'll try to incorporate as much as I can, but I'm going to keep with my outline overall._

_We're getting to the end of this Arc, so get ready to say goodbye to this chaos. The aftermath will be dealt with shortly, and I'm going to incorporate one or more of the filler arcs that I found acceptable into this. _

_Thoughts on the manga: This is so much fun! So much character trauma is on the way. I love it! Itachi-sama, please come to your senses at some point and tell Sasuke that he's an idiot. I won't even ask you to kill him. Just humiliate him! Please?_

_I would like to congratulate newboy for coming up with the closest answer to the Orochimaru problem. There were other people who saw it coming, but they didn't review last chapter, so I'm just going to commemorate him._

_Disclaimer: Pryotra owns no part of the Naruto franchise. She continues to make these statements because this is the only time that she is able to refer to herself in the third person without sounding either pompous or completely insane._

_Thanks to Ibby-kun (MegaB) for all his hard work as beta!_

_**When the sword of rebellion is drawn, the sheath should be thrown away.  
-English Proverb **_

* * *

Sakura was starting to get irritated by the fact that the two kept dodging. The only thing that they had going for them was their speed. The kid with the weird things on his arms might have been able to fight, but he needed more time than Sakura was giving him. Same with the girl. She needed to set up her attack, and Sakura wasn't going to let that happen.

All she needed was one like mistake. One little slip up or underestimation. Well, looked like she'd have to make one. Sakura made a motion like she had lost her balance for just a second, in in that second, the boy's eyes moved towards his teammate.

"So, do you think she can fight now," the boy asked the girl sarcastically.

"Oh, would you shut up," she growled.

"This was your brilliant idea," he shot back.

"Shannaro!" Sakura cheered as she managed to punch the boy's gut.

The boy flew back and crashed over the bridge towards where Haku was. It was hard to tell with the mist that Haku had called up.

"Zaku!" the girl looked over to where he had just been only to have Sakura appear in front of her.

"Teammates shouldn't fight with one another," she said, cracking her knuckles, "It distracts them. You're really Genin aren't you?"

"What's that got to do with it," the girl spat, "I'm just as tough as you are!"

Sakura laughed a little bit.

"Your boss doesn't train you much if you think that," she said, "Now, get your friend up, and stand in front of me. If you move like you're going to escape, I'll brain you."

"They'll find a way to escape," an old woman's voice said.

Sakura whirled around to see the old woman from before, Chiyo-san or something, watching her.

"I know but-hey, what happened to the guy who'd never heard of respecting his elders?" Sakura started and interrupted herself.

Chiyo watched her and nodded to herself about something.

"He disappeared. I managed to fight him for a while, but he refused to fight," she broke off, muttering to herself about what she was going to do to him when she found out who he was, "I'll tell you this, that boy was no Konoha nin."

"Why...are you telling me this?" Sakura's eyes narrowed behind her mask.

"Because you're invading this city," the old woman shrugged, "And because you actually thought about someone beside yourself. At my age you start to notice the selfishness of others. Consider it something of a reward."

Sakura had the feeling suddenly that that old woman would have been just fine without any help. All Sakura had done was make her...interested. Well, there was nothing that Sakura could do but wait and see what happened. That and watch like she was going to do with prisoners. It was pretty clear that Chiyo was going to tag along.

Sakura turned back to the girl and Zaku, who had been pulled up. They stared at her apprehensively.

"Orochimaru-sama's going to use us as test subjects once he figures out that we've failed," Zaku muttered, "Kabuto will probably use us for that freaky resurrection thing that he's been working on in his spare time."

"Resurrection thing?" Sakura said, walking up, "That sounds fascinating. You'll have to tell me all about it once Haku's done with your friend, and we have time to question you."

* * *

Shino was getting kind of heavy. Good thing they were almost there

Sasuke bit back the curse that was working its way out of his mouth, and decided to use his anger for a more productive purpose:

"Oi, Shino," he said, "If you don't tell me how you know about Naruto and me, I'm going to drop you."

"It's not an impressive story, Sasuke-kun," Shino said, "And, as I told you, I have no intention of betraying you."

"That's nice," Sasuke said.

They were almost at the designated area for the wounded and any civilians that Kinen found. As Sasuke jumped out of the trees, it came in sight. It mostly looked like a group of people, mostly standing, some sitting, against one of the walls that enclosed Konoha. Good thing for them that the explosion and the smoke that showed one of the walls being breached was on the other side.

For a moment, Sasuke looked for familiar faces. Haku and Sakura weren't there, so they must have run into someone on the way. He was surprised to see the face of Shizune, who was wearing a black outfit with sleeves that covered her hands. Well, it wouldn't have made sense to have what she usually wore. Heels would have been a very bad thing in this kind of a fight and Tonton would have probably gotten herself killed.

Shizune looked over at Sasuke, smiled in a forced kind of way, and indicated him to set Shino by the purple haired former ANBU, who was nursing a badly cut shoulder.

"You're as stubborn as I remember you," Shino sighed as he was abruptly set down (more like dropped), "When we were children, I wanted to see which of our classmates I wanted to be in a team with. While I knew that I had little control the selection, I also knew that there should be people who I should actually wish to work with. The best way to see how people truly are is to see what they do when faced with something weaker than they are."

"You used one of your bugs didn't you?" Sasuke said, not bothering to mention that it was a completely stupid thing to use in that kind of a test. Shino wouldn't have understood.

Sasuke didn't remember much about that clan, but he did remember that they didn't really see bugs the way normal people did.

"Yes, they were spiders I believe. I had not been permitted to use my own bugs for something like that at the time. They were still getting accustomed to my body,"

Sasuke didn't say just how disgusting that sounded.

"The girls mostly behaved the same way. They screamed and killed them. Hinata-san did nothing and allowed it to go its way, and I don't believe that Sakura-san noticed it. You watched yours but killed it the moment that it touched you. The one who acted differently was Naruto-kun. He actually saved his spider. Before that, I had paid him no attention. My family saw him as something of a nuisance, and I

considered him loud and untalented."

That would be the Kyuubi at work. The thing had a habit of making just about anyone dislike Naruto on the spot. After sensing its Chakra in the Forest of Death, Sasuke could see just how that was possible. No living thing would be able to stand the feeling unless it was used to it. It was probably lucky for Naruto that they had been forced together.

"After that, I had hoped that I would be teamed up with him. When I saw you again," Shino continued, "I recognized Naruto-kun by the whisker marks on his face."

Sasuke hoped that the Kyuubi would spend the rest of its existence in the stomach of one host or another. Being digested.

"I assumed that since he was alive, that you were also all alive. It seemed to be a logical conclusion, but at the same time, I wasn't sure what I should do. It was clear that you had no wish to be found out, but I wasn't sure what your motivation was."

"So you kept your mouth shut and dropped little hints. That was stupid," Sasuke said, Shizune looked like she was busy with someone else.

Shino was quiet and then nodded, "You're probably right, Sasuke-kun. Your white-haired friend did look rather murderous sometimes."

"Oh, it wasn't Kimimaro you needed to worry about. He would have just killed you quickly. You should have worried about Haku. He would have been the one to drug you, slowly get all of the information that you knew out of you and then returned you to Konoha completely addicted to something that only he could give you so that you'd always be a source of information and keep our secrets."

Shino stiffened a little.

"Your friend sounds...rather frightening,"

"He's a closet evil mastermind,"

"I see,"

They were both silent for a moment, and Sasuke spoke again, "You were the one who gave us that note, right?"

"Yes, I wished to assure you that I wasn't an enemy. I had decided when I met you again that I would help you. My family disagrees with many of the reformations that Konoha has been through, and I am acting as an...emissary."

So he was basically there to make a possible political alliance that the family could ignore if they failed as a single rebellious child. Clan politics...

Sasuke bit down the surge of annoyance towards Naruto that he felt for a moment. It seemed that the only reason that Shino was even going to join that was Naruto, and the feeling of jealousy was very much there. Sasuke shoved it down and reminded himself that Naruto also had Kyuubi.

He supposed that it evened out in the end. Besides, it wasn't like he would have changed anything.

It was then that Sasuke realized something strange in retrospect: he hadn't seen much of the Uchiha clan other than Yumi since the invasion had begun.

* * *

Hinata honestly felt a little guilty as she and her sister ran with Hayate through the streets. She honestly hadn't ever really thought of Hanabi that much after she left. What she had thought had been that she would grow up to be strong, cold, and everything that her father wanted. The idea that Hanabi had been miserable had never even come to her.

The idea that the Branch Family was a bomb waiting to go off had. The fact that they had taken advantage of the fighting, when the Hyuuga wasn't necessarily paying enough attention to use the Seal, or attack in a group so that they couldn't tell who to use it on, was something that didn't surprise Hinata.

It also didn't really surprise her that the rebellion, as spontaneous as it was, was being badly crushed.

"Hanabi, where was Otou-sama?" Hinata asked as they ran.

"Closer to our complex..." Hanabi said, breathing evenly. She would probably be more powerfully gifted at the Byakugan than Hinata was without the Tenshi Byakugan. "I think he went the opposite way."

Hinata nodded.

There was a blur of motion and Kakashi landed next to them.

Hinata had only seen him when he was in a more or less amiable mood. Now he was completely serious, and the single Sharingan that Shizune had told her about was very much visible. Shizune had said that the only time that he showed that eye was when he seriously intended to kill someone. If he wasn't taking an opponent seriously, he wouldn't show his eye.

"Where's Rasen?" He asked. Looking over the three of them.

"He's busy with a civilian," Hayate said, "How are things going?"

"Badly," Kakashi said, his eye narrow, "Between the joint invasion and ROOT we have our hands full. The Uchiha clan's keeping a low profile right now, but some of its police are out. They're probably planning something, or reorganizing themselves. I'd imagine Fugaku's death would have come as a surprise to them. Danzou still hadn't attacked himself, but it's only a matter of time."

"Gesshoku!" Hinata looked up to see the forms of Jiraiya and Tsunade, supporting Orochimaru land in front of her.

Everyone jumped back a little.

"Jiraiya-sama?" Hayate said, stepping another pace back, "...why are you carrying Orochimaru?"

"We need to make sure of something. During our battle, he started to act strangely. We want to see if there's anything...wrong with him...if you know what I mean," Jiraiya said, looking shifty.

"Is there a reason why you can't just say you want to see if there's a seal on him? You're kind of making it sound...dirty..." she said softly.

Sometimes she forgot just why Naruto called him Ero-sennin.

"What Jiraiya means is that we want to see if there are any seals on Orochimaru. Can you see anything strange?" Tsunade asked.

Hinata nodded and felt the slight pull as the Tenshi Byakugan activated, and she focused on Orochimaru's Chakra system. It was...strange...the pathways seemed very strained and twisted somehow. Then Hinata focused on his head.

"There's something on his head...it looks like it's around his brain," Hinata muttered, "I've never seen anything like it, but it's...sending signals to the rest of him and blocking something else. I...I think it's some kind of seal, but I haven't heard of this kind."

"I have," Hayate's voice made all of them jump. He smiled a little bit and added, "Jiraiya-sama's report about Akatsuki mentioned something similar."

Kakashi suddenly nodded, "I remember. One of them is rumored to be able to use seals on some of his underlings so that they can infiltrate villages. Is that what you're talking about?"

Jiraiya crossed his arms and cocked his head to one side, "Seal...oh, yes that one. It's a variant of a puppet technique and..."

He trailed off and looked at Orochimaru wide eyes.

"I'll take it off, but I don't know how much damage it's already done to him. I-it might kill him," Hinata said, ducking her head down, trying to pretend that everyone wasn't staring at her. This was making her more nervous than she had felt in years.

Tsunade and Jiraiya looked at one another, and then nodded.

"Do it," he said in a voice that was more gentle than she'd heard from Jiraiya in her life, "He would have preferred it."

Hinata nodded.

The last time that she had destroyed a seal was when they were children. Hinata had learned to see Chakra, but she had not been all that active in taking seals off and on. It wasn't something that was necessary all that much, and that made this even more stressful.

Hinata also had the sinking feeling that if she did something wrong, she would kill him.

It was like unraveling a very large piece of thread that had gotten tangled up in an enormous knot, but she didn't have the scissors that it would take to cut it. Hinata gently traced the trail of the seal with her own Chakra the way that she had done for Neji all those years ago. As she traced the paths seal's marks, she saw it disappearing, but felt much more drain than she had before.

Something banged to Hinata's right.

"Don't move. Keep your focus," Kakashi said, "We'll take care of everything else."

Hinata nodded, "Alright, give me just a little more time."

She didn't need all that much. Just a little. The knot was starting to slowly unravel, and she was starting to see what looked like some kind of core, almost embedded into the brain. Hinata gently tugged at the knot and the core, and felt it slowly give.

There was a rush of energy, and the thing dispersed the way Neji's seal had, and Hinata fell to her knees, breathing hard.

And a kunai landed right in front of her.

* * *

It was strange, but this wasn't the real ROOT.

Sai ushered Ino and her cousins up the stairs of the flower shop to the family's living quarters, ignoring the sound of the person at the door. There was a little surprise waiting for him when he got that door opened.

"Something's wrong," Sai said at last, he wasn't smiling for the first time that Ino had seen him, "I know ROOT. They don't act like this. At least...the fully initiated don't."

"What do you mean?" Ino had a dismissive tone in her voice that said she didn't think Sai knew that he was talking about, "I recognize some of those masks. They're the same guys who've been hanging around since the war with Iwa."

"ROOT has three divisions based on experience and power level," Sai recited the lesson he had learned so long ago, "The first division is made up primarily of children that have been recruited by the organization and adults that do not show any particular talent. Their purpose is to be the most visible in any attack. The second division is made up more of Chuunin to low ranking Jonin-level members. They are not called to attack as often, but are very numerous and well organized. The final division is the true ROOT. Danzou's elite who all other divisions aspire to become. They are rarely seen, but are on level, or perhaps stronger than, the old ANBU. So far, what we've mostly seen is the first division, and a small part of the second. Most of our enemies have been the main families and the joint Suna-Oto invasion."

"You're saying that...ROOT's counterattack hasn't really begun yet," Ino said at last.

"No, it's begun, but they are scattering and tiring their enemy because he attacks completely. ROOT is much, much bigger than it used to be," Sai said, "We need to get to the safe point where I can get a message to the others."

Ino looked very hard at Sai.

"How do you know all this...who are you really?" she said.

Sai smiled at her, "My name is Sai, Miss Gorgeous. I made it up myself. I used to be a member of ROOT, if you can count their war orphans. They teach you a lot of things there, and I have a very good memory."

"Your mask is wrong," One of Ino's cousins, a little girl named Ai said, narrowing her eyes at him in a very un-childish look, "ROOT all has animal masks."

"Yeah," Hoshi, the other one said, clinging to her cousin, "I see them every day!"

"Well, this isn't my ROOT mask. I was only six when we left. I never received one," Sai said, "It's a very depressing story, and I don't really want to tell you it. Now, all we have to do is get to the top, and I'll get you to the point that we set up. You'll have to stay there."

"My...father..." Ino said softly.

"He was fine when I saw him last," Sai smiled, neglecting to mention that that was quite a while ago, and he had received the message to get her from another source. At the moment they couldn't afford to be worried or thinking about anything else but survival.

They ran up the stairs, only stopping once when the door downstairs was forced open and their heard the sounds of a startled noise and a hissing, growling sound that didn't sound at all human. Ino looked back for a moment, but Sai kept her going.

At the moment, everything was going the way he wanted, but that ROOT nin would probably get past the guard faster than he wanted.

Sure enough, the sound was starting to tell him that the ROOT nin was starting to gain the upper hand.

Sai didn't say anything; he just nodded up the stairs and pointed. They needed to move faster.

Inochi had told Sai about the panel that led to the room. (In the linen closet of all places.) And when he reached the door, he opened it.

"Miss Gorgeous, how do you open the passage?" he asked.

Ino blinked, shook her head, muttered something under her breath that sounded like 'stupid' and pressed one hand against one of the shelves, pulled the shelf and the pushed one of the walls in the side.

It opened with only a small click and swung behind them.

"If you try any other method the traps will activate," Ino muttered. She sounded like she was remembering something.

"Did your father tell you that?" Sai asked.

"Yes," Ino looked down, "He said I should always be careful. I never thought..."

She stopped talking, putting her head down.

"You never think you'll need something until you do," Sai said lightly.

The passage wasn't well used. It was dusty and old with signs of ill repair and a few rotten looking places. The house was older than it looked, but Inoichi hadn't seemed to have thought that he would have ever needed to worry about this thing. Well, it had been a very long time since Konoha had actually been attacked by enemy nin. Even the Kyuubi assault had just been that. Sai supposed that people started to believe that invasions happened to other people.

It was kind of foolish though. If they were going to have a coup...it might have been smart to be prepared for the worst. Or maybe this was perfectly prepared to look like this. Sai did notice that their feet weren't leaving any kinds of marks on the dusty floor. So it was either painted to look that way or it was a genjutsu.

Sai suddenly felt so much better.

The sounds from behind them had stopped for the moment, so the ROOT nin was probably looking for them now. The panel had given them a head start, but Sai needed to get Ino and the kids to safety before fighting him.

If he didn't, the girls would have killed him. Or worse.

The children were starting to whimper and cling closer to Ino. Sai looked behind them, but didn't hear anything yet.

"How much further?" He whispered.

"Not much," Ino hissed back.

There was a sound behind them, and Sai smiled wider.

"You go on ahead, I'll catch up in a moment,"

"Oh no you don't," Ino grabbed his arm. "What happens when they're outside waiting for us?"

Sai hadn't thought of that. He hadn't been hearing much outside the building, but it could easily be a trap. After all, Ino was a valuable hostage. The clan head's daughter as a ransom was pretty sure to make the family stop, and Danzou would be sure to have Ino killed and replaced. There was that one clan who could make themselves look like anyone. Maybe Danzou had recruited them.

Throwing caution to the winds, Sai and Ino picked up one child each and started to run. The footsteps behind them started to gain speed, and there was something starting to shine ahead of them.

They both ran out into blinding light, and for a moment, Sai was too blind to even be able to attack. It was a good thing that his own attacks had taught him how to fight when he couldn't see properly. The sound of someone moving to his right made Sai move to one side and take out his sketchbook, and, hoping that whatever he had chosen was nasty, activated the technique to bring it to life.

As Sai's eyes adjusted he saw two ROOT members. One from the first division and one from the second, looking at Sai's three tailed tiger wolf. While a good hit would usually dispel them when he wasn't putting a lot of Chakra into them, they usually had an intimidation factor that gave him time to summon something else.

Sai opened his book again, looking at the eagle drawing and brought it out. It appeared underneath all of them and brought them sharply up, giving Sai a good view of everything around them.

The South section of Konoha, where one of the walls had been torn down was in flames, there was...what looked like a giant cat with two tails rampaging around. The other sections were in better condition, but it looked like something was going to happen. The crowd around the Hokage Monument was starting to thin out, and it looked like there would be a decisive victory for Kinen or the Suna-Oto alliance.

Danzou would attack from there. Sai had been taught before in ROOT that the best thing to do was to give the enemy a brief taste of victory before snatching it from them.

"What-what is this" Ino gasped out Sai had almost forgotten about her and her cousins.

"I guess you could call this defying gravity, Miss Gorgeous."

He had really wanted to say that ever since that time in the flower shop, but the times that he had envisioned saying it had usually involved him reaching out to her from one of his birds, and this sounded slightly random. Still, it was better than nothing, Sai supposed, hopefully Ino remembered where that came from.

* * *

Konohamaru had been all but carried through the streets to the Hokage Monument, and now here he was, right in front of Danzou and his counsel. Well, part of his counsel. Uchiha Mikoto, baring a grim look, was there in the place of her late husband.

"What is wrong, Tsume-san," Danzou asked, turning to face her. Kiba, who had been there to make account of himself after Kakashi's betrayal, ran up to them.

"Mom, what's going on?" he ask, "We haven't seen Shino or Yumi since everything started, and I'm not allowed to fight! Ibiki says it's because my loyalties-"

"Hokage-sama," Tsume said, putting one hand and Kiba's shoulders and one on Konohamaru. "Konohamaru-kun here has important news,"

"And what is that?" Danzou asked, his eyes fixed on Konohamaru.

It was the first time that he had really been close to the man. While his family had seen Danzou every so often, Konohamaru had usually been sent to play in his bedroom by his uncle Asuma while everything was talked about between those two. Without Asuma there, it was honestly a disturbing thing to look at the imposing figure.

Where was Uncle Asuma anyway? He hadn't seen him at all since the battle had begun.

"I-I," seemed to be the only thing that wanted to come out right now. Konohamaru took a breath, closed his eyes and started again, "I saw Hyuuga Hanabi talking to two strange ninja who were wearing masks. She seemed to know them and called them "Onee-san and Neji-nii-san."

It all seemed to come out in a rush, and Konohamaru panted a little at the effort.

For a moment Danzou was completely silent, but he looked at Konohamaru hard.

"Are you sure about that, Konohamaru-kun?" he asked.

"Y-yes, Hokage-sama," Konohamaru gasped out.

"It appears that not all of the Senju clan is traitorous," Danzou said softly, "Konohamaru-kun here is still loyal to his home. Inuzuka-san, make sure that he has a place here to wait out the battle. It appears that the missing children that Iwa kidnapped as hostages were found. I suppose that either Iwa decided that the children would be better slaves or the children themselves attempted to escape but only made it into someone else's power."

"We have to find them and capture them," Tsume said.

Kiba ran up behind both of them, his eyes much wider than Konohamaru had ever seen them.

"Mom-"

"I cannot afford to waste the lives of loyal men and women for the sake of a few misguided children," Danzou shook his head, "From the reports coming from my men on the field, they have had training. There are too many problems. The Nibi container managed to escape and is causing trouble, and even with the counterattack, this is too much of a gamble without attempting to capture anyone. Kill them on sight."

Tsume stiffened, but bowed.

"Yes...Hokage-sama," she said, "Kiba, come with me. You too Konohamaru,"

Kiba fell into step behind his mother as Konohamaru ran behind him, taking one look behind him at the impassive Hokage. What had he meant that not all of his clan were loyal? It was only him and Asuma now. Everyone was always saying what his grandfather did wrong! Now they were even calling him disloyal!

"Kiba, stay here with Konohamaru," Tsume said, not looking behind her.

"But, Mom, maybe I can-" Kiba started.

"No," Tsume's voice was harder than it usually was, "I don't want you out there right now,"

"But if Hinata and Neji are there-" Kiba started again.

"Do you want to kill your old friend?" Tsume snapped.

Kiba jerked back like he had been struck.

"You heard the Hokage. There's nothing that can be done. Even if you capture him, he'll be executed," Tsume's hands were in fists, "I'll go look for them along with the rest in the counterattack."

"But...the Hokage...Naruto...I..." Kiba was struggling.

"There are times when being a ninja means following orders that you don't like. I remember just how upset you were when those kids were kidnapped, even though you didn't want to admit that you had been friends with the village outcast, Uzumaki Naruto. I won't let you face him now. You'll have to face it one day...but..."

Konohamaru didn't really understand the conversation, but he did remember the name Naruto from his classes. He had been one of the children who had been kidnapped by Iwa. Konoha had started a retrieval mission that had escalated into war, but then when Konoha finally prevailed, they found out that there were no records of what had happened to the children, just as there were none of the assassination of the Hokage.

To this day, Iwa refused to admit to the kidnapping or the assassination, and most people thought that it was a branch that was rebellious. Still, what was done was done right? And even though Iwa didn't have the records, you never knew.

Kiba opened his mouth but stopped and hung his head.

"I understand," he muttered.

"Good. Look after him," Tsume said with a last look behind her and running off.

Kiba watched her go and gritted his teeth. Then he turned to Konohamaru.

"Go talk to my cousin, Kou, the guy with the white dog over there. He'll take you to the designated safe spot for your family," he said.

"But you're supposed to come with me!" Konohamaru pointed, "A man never goes back on his word! Taiki-nii-san told me that."

"I didn't promise did I?" Kiba grinned, "I have to talk to an old friend." For a second his smile faltered, "Taiki..." he muttered, "I'm such an idiot."

He took off without another word, leaving a confused Konohamaru behind.

* * *

The three remaining Oto nin hadn't taken the death of their teammate well.

They had been obviously shocked when they realized that Kimimaro hadn't incapacitated the fat member, and that he was going straight for the rest of them without so much as looking back to check on the damage that he had done.

They seemed to have some kind of misguided notion that people fighting them wouldn't kill them, but going for the kill themselves was alright. Kimimaro had every intention of stripping them of that little fantasy.

Why did everyone always assume that just because they were allied with a city that was known to be relatively more merciful than the other cities wouldn't kill?

Well, Kimimaro supposed that Naruto would have probably not killed them. Haku definitely wouldn't have, but the others more or less depended on the situation. Sasuke would probably torture if the person in question had hurt someone who he cared about.

The spider boy was shooting golden pseudo kunai at him at a very fast rate. It really was too bad that Kimimaro was faster. The two headed one looked like he was going to get in close though.

"Tarenkyaku!" one of the heads roared, sending far too many kicks for one body.

Kimimaro stepped back, using one of his whips to wrap around the boy, trapping him, but before Kimimaro could finish what he had started, the spider kid attacked again.

"I think we just met our Boss character," He grinned, spitting some more of the gold kunai, and making Kimimaro jump back. It didn't make him let go of the whip. It was too bad that he was smart and was keeping out of Kimimaro's way. It would have made the whole thing so much easier.

It looked like he was going to have to go about things one at a time.

"Would you stop with your stupid RPG analogies?" one of the heads snarled, "Trash is trash, even if it's tough trash!"

"Both of you, shut up!" the girl yelled, "Fight. Now. Focus."

Both boys swore at her.

"Trash, am I?" Kimimaro asked, "We'll see."

The two-headed one was trapped for the moment, but he could still use his legs, and he had a look that told Kimimaro that the two-headed kid was planning something. Well, he wasn't going to walk into a trap. Particularly when the person couldn't keep the glee from his eyes.

Kimimaro whirled and made a jump towards the spider boy jumping up the tree to meet him before he could jump away.

There was a sudden piecing note ripping the air, and Kimimaro almost didn't land on the branch. The whole world felt like it was spinning, but from the looks of it, the spider guy was having the same trouble staying balanced.

"Tayuya!" he screamed, "Stop helping me, wench!"

"Deal with it, Kidomaru!" Tayuya snarled.

Kidomaru overbalanced, falling off of the branch towards the ground, and Kimimaro jumped after him, closing his eyes and focusing on the feeling of his skeleton.

"Tessenka no Mai: Hana."

The bones on Kimimaro's wrist grew out, spiraling around one another until they created a spear that somewhat resembled a flower. Kimimaro pointed it at the center of the boy's skeleton.

They both crashed to the ground, and Kimimaro slowly stood up, opening his eyes and looking at the two remaining.

"Two down," Kimimaro muttered.

* * *

It was easier in some ways to fight the Kyuubi-Sora as opposed to normal Sora. He was definitely stupider this way, and Kyuubi was, hopefully, not having as easy a time controlling him as it seemed.

At least that was what Naruto thought from the way that he wasn't nearly as uncontrolled as he had been when he was human.

Maybe it was because Kyuubi was actually smart and worked with a strategy other than kill anything that moves and rip it into little bitty pieces.

There was another roar and the thing sent more energy out at Naruto, but Naruto disappeared with a puff of smoke. Without Sasuke or Shino this would be hard, but it was easier to face the Kyuubi when it was outside of him than when it was inside. Still, he needed a good plan on very short notice.

While Rasengan was his strongest technique a full facial attack hadn't really done all that much. He needed to tire him out some more. Even more then the bugs had been draining Chakra out of him this entire time. If there was enough Chakra drained out, he would get exhausted and Fuzzy Wuzzy wouldn't be able to keep up the connection.

At least, that was what Naruto was really hoping for.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled, and dashed along with the five clones to ignore the tails that were trying to attack them. The flat, almost human head tried to bite at them, but Naruto kept away, attacking with a kunai and then jumping back.

"Come on," Naruto muttered, "Keep on attacking."

The tails very suddenly stopped and Naruto cut the thing and jumped back. It wasn't attacking anymore, just growling and watching him.

Naruto tensed.

Could Kyuubi read his mind since it was in Naruto stomach?

No, that was impossible. If it had, it wouldn't have gone this far.

Unless it wanted to enjoy taking victory just when Naruto was almost there.

That sounded like something it would like.

Then he had to do something different, and do it so that it was completely spur of the moment. That way, even if Kyuubi did hear him, it wouldn't have time to do too much.

The Kage Bunshin all attacked in unison, and Naruto dropped down from one side with two more Kage  
Bunshin with him to attack. The Kyuubi-Sora didn't seem all that interested in attacking with more than its tails and all of them shot out at Naruto, impaling him.

And covering him with water.

"Rai Bunshin!" Naruto yelled from behind the last one.

The second Bunshin exploded into lightning covering the Kyuubi-Sora. It let out a strange screaming cry and looked up to see Naruto running towards it with a Kage Bunshin right behind him.

"Odama Rasengan!" He yelled, slamming the ball of swirling energy into the thing's side.

There was another eerie high pitched scream, and the Naruto watched as the transformation slowly reversed. The reddish Chakra slowly receded, and Sora's battered form, the skin raw and bleeding started to appear. There was a final swirl of energy and for a moment, Naruto could see the Kyuubi's form etched into the energy as it surrounded him and entered his body.

Naruto was panting hard, and he slowly turned away, jumping to a tree, landing unsteadily and hopping to the next one on all fours. For the first time in his life he wished he had one of Sakura's soldier pills on him. His whole body ached and his head was spinning.

"Chakra exhaustion is the worst," he sighed, "and Baa-chan's going to yell at me for this..."

Someone landed in front of him.

Naruto looked up and sighed. Kiba and Akamaru. Both fresh and ready for a fight. Naruto had a few more Kage Bunshin in him he supposed.

"I followed your smell, Taiki. Or...Naruto," Kiba breathed.

* * *

Being near water made it so that Haku could attack all the better. After all, ice was just a blend of air and water Chakra. If there wasn't enough water, he couldn't use his techniques. Liquid water actually made it so that he had less Chakra being burned, which was a good thing.

Dosu moved to attack and for the first time noticed something.

"What's with my arm," he muttered.

"Those senbon have a drug on them that numbs the muscles. I've also struck you in places in the arms that have slowed the signals to your brain," Haku didn't mind telling him.

Dosu cursed, "I still have my melody arm!" he said, and he moved that slowly, for the first time noticing the senbon in his shoulder.

"You really planned this out didn't you?" Dosu asked.

"I don't want to kill you, Dosu-san," Haku pressed, "Just surrender."

"I can still fight!" Duso yelled.

Haku sighed and the ice that Dosu was close to spiked out very quickly until there was one of them imbedded in his arm.

"I told you that I was holding myself back just to talk to you," Haku reminded him, "I really don't want to kill you, Dosu-san, but if you make me, I will."

"I'll do it," Isaribi said softly, "I don't mind it as much as you do."

Dosu looked between the pair, and looked towards the bridge. There hadn't been many sounds coming from there after an explosion. It looked like Sakura had gotten a hit in, and that would have ended the battle.

"Your teammates can't help you, and you can't even move anymore," Haku said, "Isaribi-san, I don't think that it's necessary to kill him, I'll knock him out and we can take him to the place where I assume Shizune is."

Isaribi nodded once, and the scales seemed to recede into her body. Haku smiled a little.

"I'm glad that Tsunade-sama was able to help you," he said.

"...It's thanks to you..." Isarabi said, looking away, "If you hadn't told me about her...and brought me...I never would have been able to look human again, but...I'm glad it isn't gone."

Haku blinked, "Really?"

Isaribi nodded, "I think that...it's a part of who I am...and...I shouldn't forget what happened...or that it...didn't make me a monster."

Haku smiled slightly and turned to Dosu, taking out another senbon.

"Don't worry, Dosu-san, this won't hurt all that much,"

His arm was numb anyways so it didn't matter much.

* * *

With his new prisoners in tow, Gaara headed back towards Nara Shikaku and his group. The Suna group had basically retreated the moment they had seen Gaara win against his siblings, but Oto was still there.

Temari, Kankuro and Matsuri were all bound by Gaara's sand which allowed them to walk, but that was about it. Well, they could talk, too.

"What are you going to do, Gaara," Kankuro asked nervously, "...we...didn't have anything to do with what Dad did. You know that, right? We never harassed you. You remember, right?"

Gaara turned to look at his brother. Actually, Gaara couldn't remember ever having actually spoken to Kankuro. Their father had kept both of his normal children as far away from Gaara as he could, and it had only really been by chance that he had spoken to his sister.

Well, there had been one time, and it hadn't really been a conversation. Kankuro had been playing alone with puppets, trying to make them move with Chakra strings, and Gaara had sat down to watch from a more or less hidden place.

"...We were just as bad, Kankuro-san," Matsuri muttered, "We should have known better."

"Who asked you?" Kankuro hissed, "And don't encourage him!"

"I'm not here for revenge, Kankuro. I was honestly surprised to see you and Temari. I am angry with father, though. Where is he?"

Kankuro looked away. Temari gave him a calculating look.

"We don't know where he is. No one's seen any trace of him since the battle started," Her voice was completely calm.

Nara Shikaku dashed up to the group of them before Gaara could respond.

"Sabaku, we need to move out of this area and prepare. I've just gotten a message from Ibiki. Danzou hasn't really attacked yet. These guys were just a precaution. I've already sent a messenger hawk. Now I see why they pulled back so easily."

Gaara looked over at the rest of the rebellion. They looked tired, and there were a lot of injured people. This was bad. They had been outnumbered to begin with. For a while he had thought that even without Danzou dead, the confusion would help enough for them to win.

Gaara nodded, but not before looking up at Danzou's face on the monument, and the group of people that was starting to spread out.

"I don't think we'll have time for that," he said softly, his sand starting to spread out.

* * *

**Omake: **A Scene that Never Made It

While Orochimau was fighting against Jiraiya and Tsunade he suddenly noticed Sasuke fighting Yumi, and his neck suddenly shot out. He had been looking for a young Uchiha boy to try this new seal on, and here one was! Uchiha Itachi-kun's little brother, Uchiha Sasuke-kun! No one else in the clan would have been that young!

Sasuke barely had time to turn as the man shot towards him and bit down on his neck, savoring the taste of victory.

Only...victory tasted like wood. And tar.

There was a puff of smoke and Orochimaru found himself biting into what looked like a railroad tie. He looked up to see Itachi with his younger brother in a vice grip.

Itachi held out one hand. "Mind crush," he said calmly.

* * *

_Finally done. I really wanted this to be finished earlier, but it didn't work out that way. Blame Naruto's Kyuubi fight. I had to think of something interesting. I really, really hate writing fight scenes. I hope it wasn't too bad._

_This chapter is not one of my favorites, but I hope you guys enjoy it. I've been planning it for a while, but it didn't seem to come out quite the way I meant it too._

_Now to resolve some other fights and get to the outcome of the whole joy. _

_Notes:_

_Orochimaru: Please don't be under the impression that I'm going to completely derail his character. I'm going to derail it, but only enough for my idea to work. I am prepared for being flamed for daring to attempt to do this to a character who is so obviously the villain. Once I finish getting my firefighter suit on, I'll be all set._

_Secret Passage: I remember reading in a few places that in real hidden villages the houses usually had trap doors and panels to either attack from, hide, or escape from a sudden attack. Since they were basically a group of assassins that lived on the land of whatever daimyo happened to own it, they couldn't depend on having a lot of help. I would assume that since Ino's family is apparently a older clan, they would have some of these things in their house, more for tradition than anything else. Actually, most of Konoha would probably have these if they were ninja families._

_Appearance Changing Clan: Do you remember on of the Naruto fillers where Hinata, Naruto and Kiba went up against a clan that could make themselves a perfect copy of anyone? Probably not. It wasn't the most inspired of arcs, but it's something to use in passing I guess._

_Kimimaro's age: Just so you all know, I looked on Narutopedia when I started this fic and Kimimaro is actually the same age as Haku. Which is, in this story and when he died, fifteen. I've gotten a few messages saying that Kimimaro was an adult when he died, but he wasn't. He just doesn't look much like any fifteen year old that I've ever seen. I hope this clears things up._

_Kimimaro's fight: The databooks said that he basically Curb Stomped the Sound Four. I'm trying to make it look realistic, but I'm not sure if I did. One vs. four people is surprisingly difficult to make sound like it's even remotely possible. _

_The Omake: This was the basic gist of a scene that I had planned in one of the earlier versions of the story (without the Mind Crush). I didn't use it for various reasons, but it kind of stuck with me, so I decided to use it as an Omake. You'd be amazed by how much this story has changed from my original conception of it. My first outline had something to do with them being found, brought back into Konoha and made into Team Hatake, thereby to do what lots of fanfiction has done before. Aren't you guys glad I changed it?_

_Translations: _

_Tarenkyaku – Multiple Connecting Kicks: Ukon's legs sprout from one of Sakon's and they kick the opponent, tripling the usual damage. _

_Tessenka no Mai: Hana – Dance of the Clematis: Flower: This is a follow-up to the Dance of the Clematis: Vine. Kimimaro's entire forearm is encased in a giant drill made of bone to attack the trapped victim. The bone is strengthened (through compression and its plaited spiral shape) to become the hardest type of bone the body can produce. The bone resembles a flower, hence the name._

_Review!_

_~Pryotra_


	30. Author's Announcement

_Everyone, last Friday, my mom broke her leg while walking the dog on the trail close to our house. Since my dad has to work, and my sister is married with a child, I'm the only one who can take care of her and do the various things that the house needs done. I originally thought that I would have time to update, but I don't think that it looks like I do. I'm really sorry, but I'm probably not going to be updating until at least August._

_As all of you who have stuck with me know, this is not a notice of abandonment. I will, as I always have, resume this story. _

_Thanks again for all the support that you've shown me and for your patience with me. _

_I'll update as soon as I am able._

_Pryotra_


	31. Part 2: Retreat

_Author's Corner: I didn't abandon you! You guys all are the best, you know that? I was kind of expecting 'What! Get back to work, fanfic-slave!' and while I did get some PMs that made me feel that way (you know who you are) most of you were more understanding then I ever would have thought. Thanks for your patience, and I'm trilled to be back._

_It's great to be writing again._

_Thoughts on the manga: Neji, if you had been evil, I would have hated you forever. Ohhh Gaara! I'm so happy for you! It couldn't have happened to a more deserving character. Itachi-sama, you have made me more happy then you could ever know, and I think I know what that crow does...huh, that was unexpected. Oh, Itachi, I love you! Naruto, you've reached godmode haven't you? Sasuke go die...oh, wait...ok, you can kill Zetsu. Then die. You know, this arc is constantly going from really interesting to kind of uninteresting... Madara?_

_Random recommendation: Fairy Tail! It's probably one of the funniest manga I've read. A lot of fantasy books and such take themselves way, way too seriously, as such, it's fun to read something that's just there for the fun of it. The characters are likable, the storyline is fun, and the world is interesting. I recommend it, but I would warn you that the mangaka doesn't really mind fanservice. Whether it be for girls or guys. You'll get a little bit of everything here.  
_

_Disclaimer: Pryotra writes fanfiction. As the name implies it is fiction written by a fan. Therefore it is impossible for her to actually own Naruto or anything associated with the series, or it wouldn't be fanfiction. She's also starting to run out of cute ways to say the same thing._

_Thanks to Ibby-kun (MegaB) for his work as my Beta._

_**He's no failure. He's not dead yet.  
-William Lloyd George **_

* * *

For a moment, the only sound that came between Kiba and Naruto's stare-off was that of Naurto's heavy breathing. Kiba's hands were shaking and Akamaru looked like it was somewhere between growling and whining. Finally, Naruto opened his mouth.

"Took you long enough," he said. Naruto would have liked it to have sounded more defiant, but really he was only managing exhausted, "I was kind of offended when you didn't recognize me when we met. Did all those times we cut class together and read manga mean nothing to you?"

That last bit sounded better. More mocking and less tired.

Kiba glared at him.

"Why are you attacking your own home!" he nearly screamed, "What did they tell you? Did they tell you that you weren't cared about? Everyone looked for you! We started a war because of what Iwa did! If...if you surrender and come back now, Danzo-sama'll accept you. I know it. You're tough, and you're Konoha nin."

"...Yeah, and that's all that matters isn't it?" Naruto said, "But there's a problem. Some of my friends aren't Konoha nin. I'll have to pass."

For a minute Kiba looked confused, but slowly he seemed to see what Naruto was saying.

"So, you're really an enemy," He muttered.

"Eh, sorta, kinda," Naruto said with a shrug, "I'm against Danzo. You'd be too if you knew what I do."

"SHUT UP!" Kiba all put screamed, leaping for an attack.

Honestly, Naruto didn't have time for this. He was already late due to trying to figure out how to fight Sora with Kyuubi causing problems. Maybe another time when they could fight to their heart's content. He jumped up, ricocheted off a tree and managed to get behind Kiba, kicking him in the back and sending him forwards into the horde of Kage Bunshin waiting.

"Get-"

"Ship-puu no Nar-uto Rendan!" Naruto and the Bunshin yelled, each landing a kick on him, sending him into the air until a final above kick drove him to the ground, next to Sora, completely unconscious.

It was an old technique, but useful. He had made it after Tsunade showed Sakura a combo that she thought she might like, and he had made a bet with Sai and Sasuke that he could copy it without training. He'd won.

Naruto landed next to Kiba and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Kiba, I really wish I had the time to tell you everything. Even though I don't think that you'd believe me right now," Naruto sighed.

There was a growling from behind him and Naruto turned to face Akamaru. He looked like he was ready to kill.

"I didn't hurt him that bad!" Naruto protested, "He'll be a little sore that's it!"

Akamaru didn't seem that impressed. He ran forwards to attack, but the Naruto clone poofed the moment Akamura bit down.

"Akamaru!" Yelled Naruto from somewhere, the echoes distorting his voice, "Tell Kiba I'm sorry, and that if he wants to learn why, he needs to learn about when the Sandaime died. Tell him that we weren't ever kidnapped, and to look out for Yumi. She shouldn't have the Sharingan if she's his age."

Akamaru growled, and Naruto was pretty sure that whatever he said was pretty offensive, but he turned around and jumped off. He had a group of meet up with, and the designated spot wasn't that far off.

* * *

Sasuke was waiting rather impatiently when Naruto finally got there. He was glaring over at some poor harassed looking apprentice medic with frizzy hair and her eyes hidden by large glasses. She only looked more nervous at the glare, which immediately focused on Naruto.

What had happened to his mask anyway?

"Where have you been," he growled.

"Finishing up with Kyuubi-Sora and having a run in with Kiba," Naruto said, "Where is everyone?"

"Nishoku and Hara have just brought in some prisoners and allies, I guess. I don't know where everyone else is," Sasuke said, crossing his arms, "Even Tsunade and Jiraiya haven't been heard from."

Naruto blinked and started to feel a bit of panic rising up inside him. Tsunade and Jiraiya should have been here. Yeah, they got distracted by the pain known as Orochimaru, but it shouldn't have taken so long. Same with the others. Everything was all wrong.

"Let's find Nishoku and Hara and look for the others. I'm-" Naruto began but was interrupted by a loud sound as what looked like a ball of sand floating in the sky over the Hokage Monument exploded.

"What the-" someone started.

"It's Sabaku," Sasuke whispered.

"Let's go!" Naruto yelled, breaking into a run.

They were joined by the figures of Sakura and Haku, both with their masks still on. Both got behind Naruto.

"Did you hear anything about why Sabaku would send a signal?" Haku asked.

Naruto shook his head. Gaara had said that if there was something really bad about to happen, he'd warn them. Naruto had told him that if he sent a signal, they'd regroup and find him to see if they could help. What could have happened at the Monument that _Gaara_ thought that he needed help? Gaara was like a one man demolition team.

Then again, even he couldn't look at directions at once, and if he was too tired, his sand wouldn't protect him anymore.

"We'll see soon enough," Naruto said, "Arashi, you and Nishoku see if you can find the others. Hara and me will go directly to see what's wrong. If you can't find anyone in fifteen minutes forget it and get to the Monument. They'll come when they can."

Sasuke nodded and he and Sakura dashed off down one of the other streets.

* * *

Kisame had gotten stronger over the years. By joining Akatsuki, he had been practically guaranteed an increase in power. He had always been one of the most powerful of the group, but now, Zabuza was starting to feel outclassed.

This was ridiculous. He had trained in hopes that this day would come! Now, here he was, running around a flooded street like some kind of idiot Genin trying to keep his head from being cut off. It was downright embarrassing, but he couldn't get too angry. He couldn't lose control. That was what Kisame was waiting for. The moment that Zabuza lost his head figuratively, he'd lose it physically.

So, things were mostly clashing swords, and trying not to have something shaved off by Kisume's deeply creepy, somewhat sentient sword.

"It feels like a training session, don't you think?" Kisame asked. "Like old times."

Zabuza replied by trying to get in a position where the hole in the sword was around Kisume's neck.

"Sorry, the nostalgia was getting to me,"

Kisame dodged the blow and dashed towards him, running over the water.

It really was like old times. How many training sessions had been similar to this? Well, he wasn't going to lose this time. It didn't matter if Kisame had sacrificed his soul to that weird dark god that he'd heard some travelers whispering about in some inn or other, Zabuza had been in worse states before.

After all, he'd had to kill every single one of his peers once.

Kisame was easy compared to that. Even if there was more emotion this time around. It had been easier back then. When there had really been nothing between them. Not as much as other nations believed. Everyone had known what was going to happen, and even at that age, there was a self-defense in them not to get too close.

Kisame and he had once been close. Once upon a time, he'd been just like that stupid Haku kid. Willing to do anything for his adopted family.

Swords met, and Zabuza felt himself being pushed backwards. He shoved harder, ducking his head to avoid Kisame's sudden move to shave, and kicked out. Kisame let go and jumped back. Something exploded above the two of them, and they both jumped at the same time, using the debris to jump their way to one another, both clashing and jumping apart when they had the chance.

"Face it, Zabuza," Kisame said, grinning. "You're not going to beat me. You've gotten a little rusty running around as an assassin for hire. Or was it the little girl?"

Zabuza jumped onto the building and crouched, waiting. How did he know about Isaribi?

"Akatsuki's got the best information network in the world," Kisame seemed to know the question he was asking himself, "Maybe if I kill her, you'll put in more of a fight. You were always tougher when you went berserk."

He meant it.

Zabuza redoubled his attacks, jumping up, swing the blade, kicking out, trying to get close enough to get a good attack in.

"That's more like it!" Kisame said cheerfully.

And Zabuza saw red.

With a roar that was almost more like a scream he charged, but something, some part of him that was usually dormant woke up. The thing that had allowed him to fight and win in the Genin exam. He dashed forwards again, like he was going to attack, but jumped backwards landing in the debris in a crouch and waiting for Kisame to follow him. He did. Jumping down with his sword going straight for Zabuza's head.

And Zabuza jumped back at the last minute, and swung his sword.

"You know, we're going to do this all day," Kisame said with a grin.

And Zabuza hit the edge of the roof that Kisame was standing on, making it crack and slide back while Zabuza charged.

"Dishonorable to the last," Kisame muttered, trying to block the assault that Zabuza immediately began and move to gain his footing, but Zabuza wasn't letting him.

"That's rich, coming from the guy who always said that a ninja had no honor," Zabuza snarled.

There was a sudden explosion from somewhere, and Kisame looked up for one moment. Zabuza guessed that he knew what that signal meant, but that one instant was all he needed.

The hole in the center of the blade was suddenly around his head, and with a jerk, there was a gush of blood that sprayed Zabuza, and Kisame's body fall into the water that he had made. The sword fell with him, whatever kind of living thing it was could probably swim.

"Everyone...Miyako...it's done," Zabuza muttered.

It was amazing just how empty those words sounded.

* * *

The last two Oto nin were starting to look desperate. With two of their members dead, their invincibility wasn't quite so clear anymore, and they were starting to look as if the idea of the fact that they too could die had just occurred to them.

Kimimaro straightened, still feeling slightly dizzy from the girl's attack, but he could see again, but there was one small problem: he was starting to get tired, but any worry that he was feeling didn't show on his face as he stared the final two down. He disengaged his arm from the twisted lance that was the 'flower' of the attack. He wasn't going to need it anymore.

"Two to go," he said softly, dashing towards them both.

The two headed boy who was constrained by Kimimaro's other whip disappeared with a pop as a bone aimed directly for one of their foreheads hit it.

"SAKON, UKON YOU FILTHY SCUMBAGS! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!" Tayuya screamed, following up with a few good swearwords about his ancestors. Then she stopped and prepared herself for a fight, "Fine. I'll go myself."

For a moment Kimimaro wasn't sure what to do. He knew that betrayals weren't all that uncommon, but this was the true first time he'd seen one done, and it had been so utterly without any interest in his teammates. The idea was almost sickening to him.

She put her flute to her lips, but Kimimaro was faster. Dashing forwards, he cut the flute out of her hands with a bone sword, and before she could react crushed it with one foot.

"End of the line, Oto nin," Kimimaro said.

"Get it over with!" Tayuya snarled, "or are you going to rub it in my face?"

"Actually, I'm going to take you prisoner," Kimimaro said, taking out his spine again and with a flicking it around her arms. "You appear to be highly ranked, so you might know some interesting information."

"Do you think that I can't take torture?" the girl smirked.

Kimimaro stared at her, his own mask hiding his own smirk.

"You have never been trained to take the kind of torture that I'm going to put you through. Now, start walking," Kimimaro said.

"You're sparing me because I'm a woman aren't you?" Tayuya continued to shout.

"I'm sparing you because you're the last one standing. Now, be quiet and march," Kimimaro said. Not mentioning the fact that he'd chosen her for last for a reason.

There was a rush of motion, and Kimimaro looked up to see a bird made of ink coming down to meet him. Sai was naturally guiding it, but he was surprised to see the girl clinging to him as if her life depended on it. Wasn't she that Ino girl who'd tried to possess a puppet?

Had Sai suddenly developed hormones?

Somehow, Kimimaro seriously doubted it. It was more likely that circumstances had forced him to take her with him. After all, she was from an ally's family, and right now, allies were hard to come by. The ink bird landed next to them and dissolved as Sai jumped out with Ino still attached to him along with two young children that Kimimaro hadn't really noticed before.

"Hello, Haka-kun," Sai said pleasantly, "You've done a pretty good job cleaning out here. I'm glad you just got done, but I think we're about to have a problem. I think that those of Kinen can finish up anything that you're doing."

"If you make another bird, and allow me to take my new prisoner to Shizune, we can talk on the way," Kimimaro said.

Sai nodded.

"Sounds good. Why don't I use a snake so that you can use your spinal cord as a means of killing people again," Sai said, and Kimimaro could tell that he was smiling.

There was a meeping sound from Ino, and Kimimaro watched as she turned an interesting shade of green.

"Oh come off it, you spoiled princess," Tayuya spat, "You're not being tied up with it, so what do you have to complain about?"

"Because I don't want to hear about it either!" Ino shot back, turning red.

"Now, now, ladies," Kimimaro said, "It's not mannerly to squabble like that."

He had a very satisfying chain of swearwords out of Tayuya.

"You're enjoying yourself too much," Sai said, cocking his head.

"Probably," Kimimaro said, hopping onto the bird and dragging Tayuya with him.

Sai nodded and followed, and the bird took off carrying all of them. Ino and the children clung to one another in something akin to terror, while Tayuya sat on her knees, straight backed and glaring at everything that moved. Only Sai and Kimimaro were standing to see what the invasion had done.

Konoha hadn't been a bad looking place, but the three way battle had changed that. It looked like the civilian sector was all but demolished, and one of the walls had been completely taken down by a giant snake. Close to the center of the city, where the Hokage building had been, a giant two tailed cat, obviously the prisoner Naruto had met, was being attacked by a group of ninja. Yet, the damage wasn't what Kimimaro's attention had been attracted to.

There was a battle going on near the Hokage Monument, and from the explosions and shouts, it was unlike the others. Other ninja were running to that place as quickly as they could, and Kimimaro could see what looked like black shapes jumping down from the heads of the Hokages.

"It looks like Danzou had a counterattack planned," Kimimaro said, "Have you warned the others?"

"No, I haven't found them yet," Sai said, "You were the first one. We have to tell them all."

They'd thought that by killing Danzou in the first move, Konoha would be too disorganized to put up this kind of fight, but with Danzou still alive...

It looked like their attempt to take Konoha had failed.

* * *

Apparently, everyone agreed that a healed Orochimaru was a very, very bad idea. Jiraiya and Tsunade were busy in one part of the street, but they had already used up plenty of Chakra in the fight with Orochimaru. Also, summoning here would probably be even less helpful. Kakashi and Hayate were fighting together, guarding her against what looked like a pretty tough opponent, but at this point, Hinata couldn't tell whether he was ROOT, Oto, or Suna. After a while everything just blended together.

Hinata straightened up and positioned herself to fight

"Sorry," Kakashi said, "Do you still need time?"

"No," Hinata said "I-I think he's healed, but he's not going to regain consciousness for a while. I...hope I didn't do anything bad to him... Thank you for protecting me while I was busy."

"You've done a good job. Field healing is always difficult," Hayate said, then he charged with his blade at the nin who was about to throw a barrage of kunai at them.

"Where's Hanabi?" Hinata said, looking around. She was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm right here, Onee-sama," Hanabi said, appearing from the where she was hiding in a tree, "I was trying to attack from a difficult to find location. I know that father wouldn't approve...but...my training isn't complete, and I thought-"

"That's very clever," Hinata said, really unsure of what to say. Usually people went to Tsunade or even Sakura for praise. Or Naruto. Never to her. It was honestly completely unnerving.

There was a rush, and Hinata spun around to see Sakura and Sasuke (without his mask for some reason) land a little ways in front of her.

"Gesshoku!" Sakura cried, "Where's Rasen?"

"I don't know, but he should be close by," Hinata said.

Sasuke looked around, and the crimson Sharingan fell on the form of Orochimaru. Hanabi let out a small gasp that Hinata doubted had a whole lot to do with the fact that he was looking murderous. She shouldn't have been that surprised, after all, it wasn't that strange that they would have stayed together, all stupid rivalries aside.

"Dead?" Sasuke asked.

"I'll tell you later," Hinata said, "This is Hanabi, my sister. She's going to come with us."

"Ask Tsunade to take her back with her. We have to find the others. Hara and Shippuu have already joined Sabaku to help with the counterattack. We don't have enough time to babysit," Sasuke said, giving Hanabi a bored look.

Hanabi glared at him, "I am perfectly capable of fighting," she said stiffly.

"No, you're not," Sasuke said, "Now, go and talk to Tsunade. I don't have time for you."

Hinata sighed. Being that Naruto was gone, Sasuke was in charge by default, but that didn't mean that he was right.

She wished Naruto was here. He would have understood.

"I'm sorry, Hanabi-chan," Hinata said, turning away from Sasuke deliberately, "Maybe he's right. We might be killed out there, and I don't want to lose you now that I've found you again."

And it was true. It was strange, that even though they hadn't seen one another in so long, Hinata wanted to be able to talk to her sister again.

Hanabi glared at Sasuke and nodded to Hinata.

"You won't die, Onee-sama!" Hanabi said suddenly, "But...I'll listen to you and go with Tsunade-sama."

"We'll see that she gets to her," Kakashi said, "now go and find Rasen."

Hinata nodded and took off.

* * *

Neji had trained like crazy for this invasion, but he wasn't doing as well as he thought that he would. Yes, he wasn't easy to hit, but still, he would have liked to have not been able to be hit at all. Even when going against a big group, he was stronger than most of them.

Also, it was kind of disturbing to fight next to Lee and Gai.

Even wounded and tired, Gai was a formidable fighter. If only he wasn't so...enthusiastic in his words and attacks. What was worse was that Lee joined him and seemed honestly shocked that Neji wasn't joining them in their weird friendship poses that seemed vaguely disgusting to him.

What was worse was that they kept looking at him as if he was the weird one for not joining them in their actions.

"My Eternal Rival!" Lee yelled, "while we may be rivals, it is not wrong to enjoy the Flames of Youth while we have this moment of unity!"

Why him?

He was almost thankful when a barrage of kunai and other various things distracted him, and he rushed off to meet the thrower.

There was a sudden explosion above him, and Neji looked up to see what looked like a giant ball of sand. It was floating in the air, completely suspended and occasionally exploding out with enough sound to alert the entire village that it was there.

That was Gaara's signal.

Neji quickly dispatched the large man who had tried to get him into a headlock, and started down the street.

"The Flames of Youth have at last kindled deeply within your heart!" Lee crowed and took off after him.

"Yosh, Lee!" Gai called, "Let us continue on our crusade to save Konoha from the evil that it has accidentally brought on itself and turn it to a land of Youth!"

They were either completely insane or utterly brilliant. The problem was that Neji wasn't sure he even wanted to know.

* * *

Gaara wasn't happy by the time Naruto and Haku arrived. He could tell by the way that Gaara was holding his arms. When Gaara was worried or something, he held them tighter.

It wasn't any wonder that he was so stressed. He was almost the only person who was fending off what looked like an onslaught of masked ROOT nin, and he was getting tired. Most of the Nara clan was either wounded or retreating or dead. There were some medics trying to get at them, but mostly they were outnumbered, outclassed, and out of luck.

Gaara was pretty much acting as a wall to allow the others to back up, and he looked like he was dangerously close to using his secret weapon.

He could, after all, for himself to sleep.

"Shippuu," he sighed, relief clear in his voice, "Good to see you,"

"The others should be coming soon. Arashi and Nisshoku were sent to find the others," Naruto said.

For a minute he was surprised when he saw the three hostages, but then he recognized two of them as Gaara's siblings. He nodded once at Gaara and set to work himself.

Naruto threw a barrage of kunai that quickly multiplied and exploded, making group pause for a minute, but after that moment they kept going. Well, Naruto wasn't really expecting them to start to retreat after throwing a few exploding kunai.

Naruto pressed his fingers together.

"TAJUU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" He yelled.

The explosion made everyone jump as the Kinen members there saw more Kage Bunshin then they had ever thought was possible, and even ROOT looked a little unsure of itself when faced with what was essentially an army of identical masked figures.

"Reinforcements have arrived!" one of them shouted.

Another one hit it, and since apparently Bunshin couldn't make one another explode, the one who shouted just looked embarrassed before joining in the charge that all of the Bunshin were making towards the ROOT members.

Naruto noticed that Danzou wasn't to be seen. If this was the counterattack, he wasn't going to be at the forefront he supposed. That wasn't like him.

"Has Danzou appeared at all?" Haku asked, forming wall of ice to shield a group of retreating nin.

"I haven't seen anything," Shikamaru's voice said from behind Naruto. He hadn't really noticed him before, but he was there, holding a wounded arm and looking tired but alive, "I looked for him, but I couldn't see anything that looked like him, even masked. The man giving orders in the back isn't built right, so I'd assume that Danzou is somewhere above us, preparing another wave to attack by."

"So, I guess this means we've lost," Naruto said.

Part of him didn't want to accept it. There couldn't be a way that they could lose. Surely they were right? And the right thing always won out didn't it? What had they done wrong? Maybe if they kept fighting...

They could all die.

* * *

Yugito was starting get tired. Running around, tearing down buildings and fighting giant snakes wasn't easy. Particularly since the Nibi wasn't all that interested in being helpful. Just like a cat to pretend to not want to do something that she really wanted.

They were so obsessed with making people respect them and looking good. Even to the point of denying themselves.

When she couldn't hold the form anymore without losing control, Yugito preformed the seal to force the Nibi back and looked at the ten ROOT nin who were against her. She smirked slightly and took out two kunai.

"Hm, well, maybe you'll give me something to do," she said, smirking at them, "I still have a brat to smack for getting me into this, so I can't have you kill me just yet."

She dashed forwards, weaving through the group and stabbing them where she could. This wasn't even the second group, so it wasn't too hard. Still, after summoning the Nibi, she was pretty tired.

It wasn't surprising that she didn't notice that one of the ROOT nin wasn't as weak as she seemed to be, and when Yugito stabbed her in the stomach, the blood that came out was slightly too dark to be real and that she fell in a way that allowed her to throw something.

Still by the time she realized and reacted, she would have been badly injured had the man in the red and black fashion statement appeared and grabbed the woman's hand.

"You should pay more attention. Even if you believe that they are weaker than you," Itachi said.

"Who're you?" Yugito said, crouching down.

"Since you were freed by Zabuza who is working with my little brother at the moment, I am your ally," the man said.

It was creepy how he didn't have much emotion when he spoke.

Wait.

Black robe with red clouds. It had been a rumor that Bee had passed to her about a group...a group that was looking for Jinchuuriki. What was the name again? It had something to do with dawn or something.

Oh, yeah, that was it. Akatsuki.

Yugito wasn't one to bother with an explanation in this kind of situation. She attacked, throwing two kunai that were deflected and almost hitting him with an exploding tag before winding up on the ground, while the person in question somehow managed to kill off the surrounding ROOT nin with nothing but a kunai and a fireball.

"I assure you, I will not attack you," the man said, "There is no reason for this. We have the same enemy at the moment."

She didn't believe him, but it wasn't like she had a choice either. If this guy had wanted to kill her, she'd be dead.

"We have to hurry to the Hokage Monument," the man said, "Danzou will attack from there if he has made it his new base of operations, and we must hurry if you do not wish to meet my partner."

Yugito could guess that this guy didn't, so because she didn't know what else to do, and because if she didn't the guy probably would have just knocked her unconscious and dragged her along, she followed him.

All in all, it wasn't a particularly wonderful way to meet someone.

* * *

It was not easy to fight and carry around an unconscious man at the same time.

Orochimaru had better have a seriously good story in payment for this. How had be managed to get himself in this position, and just how much of what had happened before was his fault.

Well, Tsunade was going to find out.

If she managed to get out of here.

At the moment, she was busy keeping her slugs with enough energy to help heal everyone they could find, and get the retreat to begin. Shizune was already starting to round up as many as she could with Hanabi, and Anko and Iruka were both proving invaluable. Anko had her giant snake that could move around at a very shocking rate, and Iruka was moving behind her.

He was surprisingly brutal with killing his opponents. Quick and efficient, but still rather ruthless. She supposed that living under Danzou would leave marks on anyone.

Other than Anko. She hadn't changed much from when she was Orochimaru's apprentice. That had been why she had been paired with him. She had been too brutal and too competitive to work with a team, and Orochimaru had volunteered to train her. He'd said it was so that he could work with her to control herself. Really, he'd just thought she be a good experiment.

Or had he?

How long had he been under that seal?

That didn't matter. What mattered was the retreat.

"Everyone, fall back!" she called to what looked like an all-out brawl right in front of the hotel where the guests were staying. They didn't even know what side was what, "We must initiate our plan to evacuate to Area Fifteen."

She'd always known that this rebellion wasn't a good idea.

Now that they'd lost the only thing that would have won their battle, she had to make sure that enough people got out with their lives.

And where was that idiot?

"Jiraiya!" Tsunade yelled just as an explosion rocked the building next to her.

"You hollered?"

"You take Sleeping Snaky, I need to warn the others," Tsunade said, almost throwing Orochimaru at him.

"What about my spy network! There are still some of them here!" Jiraiya somehow managed to sound slightly whiny when he said that.

"They're not fighting are they? Hopefully, they're smart enough to stay as spies and keep themselves alive without you to tell them to."

"But-"

"We're in charge of this mess, and we have to give the orders! Now, come on!"

"Alright, fine, but we need to give orders to the kids too. They're going to be in the thick of it. I'll get to them. You focus on Shizune and getting the others out. I'll tell the kids to separate from us and go the long way round."

Tsunade nodded.

* * *

By the time that the others arrived, Naruto was on his third Tajuu Kage Bunshin, and he was starting to feel tired.

"Danzou's strategy seems to be to simply tire us out," Sai said, "He will continue until he believes that we are weak enough to crush."

"I didn't know that there were so many ROOT nin," Sakura moaned. She was fighting five of them at once, weaving, dodging, and occasionally landing a fatal punch, so she had a right to complain.

Naruto was a little busy using formations and charging Rasengans, but he could tell that Sasuke was still looking around. Probably for his family.

"We keep going until we get word!" Shikaku yelled, "We are the only ones here, so we have to hold them off."

It was something that was easier said than done.

Even with the protection of Gaara's sand, which was whirling around, attacking anyone who was in Gaara's line of sight, the Nara clan (those that were still fighting) was having trouble. Their style always needed protection, and without their more or less now traditional allies with them, they weren't doing as well as they usually did.

Still, since this was the brunt of the counterattack, and if they retreated it would cause those people who were fighting in the other parts of the city to suffer for the fact that they were completely unprepared. Also, Naruto could make out some parts of Suna's force here too, still fighting. Right now, the fact that there were three groups was, finally, having some good parts of it.

Neji was next to him, setting off one of his spinning attacks and holding his own fairly well, other than the kunai that was sticking out of his shoulder and the fact that he was breathing hard.

Hinata was doing well too, but she was more working in the background, breaking up genjutsu that had been cast on some of the Nara, looking for weaknesses in people's Chakra and shouting instructions to Gaara about where two attack, and sometimes attacking with poisons. She looked undamaged, but exhaustion was starting to show itself.

The two green clad...things that Neji had brought with him were really helpful though. Even if Naruto had some trouble understanding what they were talking about and what an Eternal Rival was. The older man was already badly wounded, but he was still kicking, literally, and the younger one was certainly strong. Why hadn't they met in the Exams?

Kimimaro was somewhere in the thick of things. Then he would jump back and attack from a nice distance. He was starting to look tired though, and he was starting a cough a little, a sure sign that he was going to be unable to fight pretty soon.

Haku was probably having the worst time of it. He really had trained more of one on one fighters, but he was doing his best, as well as managing to put some kind of pad on Neji's shoulder that was numbing the pain and stopping the bleeding until Sakura could look at it. He had made a mist that was really proving useful at this moment, but Naruto noticed that Haku was limping slightly.

There was an explosion behind Naruto, and he turned around to see the giant toad coming towards them with Jiraiya on its back.

"Shippuu, you should have summoned something!" Jiraiya called.

"Yeah, but it's hard to fight on the back of a toad!" Naruto yelled back, "And you had Gamabunta!"

Jiraiya looked like he had someone with him, but Naruto didn't know who the person was. He only had an impression of long black hair.

Had he just picked up some random, unconscious woman? Naruto sure hoped not...

"Anyways, I'll hold them off for now. You all get out. Area Fifteen. Go the long way. We're all splitting up."

"But-" Naruto started.

"Go on!"

"Jiraiya-sama, the Nara clan-" Shikaku began.

"Is going to be wiped out if you don't get going. All the clans are badly damaged, but you all need to get going. Shizune's already getting the wounded out, and Tsunade's warning the others. There's nothing we can go be keep as many of us alive as we can to hope that the added problem of Suna will help our retreat.

* * *

Everyone knew that ROOT was divided into its three groups, but Jiraiya had never actually seen the third in action until this day. ROOT was mostly formed when Konoha was peaceful, after the Kyuubi assault and the second war.

He had to give Danzou credit, these guys were tough.

Was that guy using Hyuuga attacks?

Hiashi wasn't going to be thrilled about that...

He wasn't going to be able to do it alone, so he summoned Gamahiro and Gamaken. Just in case. After all, he did have Orochimaru's dead weight on him.

"I'll do my best, despite my clumsiness," Gamaken said, bowing his head.

How many times did Jiraiya have to tell him that they'd both been drunk? There was no reason to take it to heart the way he had!

The owner had forgiven them both. It wasn't like most giant toads were good dancers anyways!

"Don't worry about that," Jiraiya said, "Our job is to keep the main force busy while everyone gets a chance to get away, then we made a break for it."

"Such a brave ninja," Gamabunta muttered.

"He who fights and runs away-" Jiraiya began wisely.

"Lives to see the light of day, now shut up and fight!" Gamabunta snarled.

Jiraiya's hair began to spike out as he dashed forwards to meet the first guy head on.

"Oh! Me too, me too!" A new voice said, and Jiraiya looked up to see that Zabuza had joined him.

The Demon of the Bloody Mist hoisted his dripping sword over his shoulder. His eyes were somehow unfocused.

"I just had an anti-climactic battle, so I want some release. You guys should amuse me," he said, his muscles tensing.

"Isaribi's with Shizune," Jiraiya said, "Sure you don't want to join her?"

Zabuza smirked, "When there's so much fun to be had here? Oh, I saw the cat girl and someone else heading this way, so we should be having some reinforcements."

It was the best news Jiraiya had heard since this whole mess started.

* * *

So they ran just as the fresh wave appeared, and from the first onslaught of jutsu, Naruto knew that this was the group who Danzou really considered ROOT. Everything else had just been grunts to be killed and tire out his enemy. These guys were using high level attacks, and Naruto looked back to see Jiraiya attacking with everything that he had, summoning three toads that Naruto hadn't even seen before.

For some reason, now that Kinen was starting to back off, Suna and Oto seemed to be focusing exclusively on ROOT. Not that it was doing much for them. Naruto could see a whole lot more of them dead than ROOT.

He couldn't really see any of the groups. It looked like they had been holding them off, most of the streets were either abandoned or they were filled with people who looked too busy for them to interrupt. There were brief moments where it looked like a fight was about to begin but Gaara, still holding his siblings, sent a wave of sand and anyone who stood in the way.

"We split up here," Shikaku's voice cut through Naruto's thoughts and he turned to see the Nara starting to run down another street, "This will lead us to our rendezvous point. Keep going straight. You kids'll be alright, won't you?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, we'll be fine. Baa-chan and Ero-sennin planned out what would happen and all."

He scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Oi, Naruto," Shikamaru called, "It was good to see you again. Take care of yourself."

"You too," Naruto said.

"I shall see you soon, my Eternal Rival!" the younger of the green spandex guys said to Neji, who looked somewhere between annoyed and amused.

"Yes, Lee, and both of you shall enjoy the glories of your rivalry in the Springtime of Youth!" the older one yelled.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

There was a very sudden change to a sunset out of nowhere where the two men embraced.

"Um, what are they talking about?" Kimimaro hisssed to Neji.

"I have no idea," Neji shrugged.

"It sounds disgusting," Hinata mumbled.

"Two men embracing in the sunset...it looks far more disturbing than I would have ever thought.." Sakura said.

"Maybe it's the spandex," Sai said.

Both parties dashed off.

They had almost reached the wrecked main gates when the scream came.

"SASUKE!"

* * *

Sasuke knew that voice, and he stopped in spite of himself.

There standing behind him, flanked by members of the military police and Uchiha Yumi, stood Uchiha Mikoto.

She looked different than the last time he'd seen her. Then her eyes had held nothing but cold indifference. Now she was looking at him with a kind of shock.

"It's you...from that time," she whispered, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Her voice was low, but it rang in Sasuke's ears as if she had screamed them.

"Hello...Oka-san," Sasuke muttered.

"I don't know what they told you...what lies they fed to you...but come back. I promise, you won't be punished for it. We'll speak to Danzou-sama," Mikoto said, stepping forwards.

Ever since that day a month ago, Sasuke had asked himself what he would do if he was faced with this. He had told himself that he would turn his back on them easily, but now, when faced with his mother, even knowing that this was just as much of a political move as a familial one, it was hard to do it.

"Arashi!" it was Naruto, standing at the top of the wall, beckoning him. "Hurry!"

Sasuke bit his lip.

"Sasuke, come here!" Mikoto ordered, "I am your mother!"

"Sasuke," This time it wasn't a shout.

Sasuke turned around to see Sakura standing there, waiting for him. She wasn't begging him. She was just standing there, and she would have stood there even when Jiraiya had to back off. If he didn't come back with them, Sakura would have allowed herself to be captured.

She probably would have killed him once they were in prison though.

That moment lasted longer than Sasuke would have liked, particularly when he had constantly said how he wasn't going to be associated with the Uchiha. He had called a blood feud! And now...he was faltering.

He looked at his mother, and his eyes fell on the smirking face of Yumi. Yumi who had nearly killed Sakura and was only interested in this because he happened to be from the same clan. His mother who had said all those years ago that he wasn't important and who hadn't even recognized him.

But...she was his mother...

"Forgive me, Okaa-san," Sasuke said, his voice barely rising above a whisper.

"What?" Mikoto took a step forwards.

"I won't be coming home again. It's too late. This is my life now," Sasuke said, "I...am not Uchiha Sasuke. My name is Arashi no Sasuke. The one who will break the power of the Uchiha clan."

"I told you that he had taken his brother's path," Yumi said, stepping forwards, "His brother is here. I saw him."

"Then I will show him the error of his brother's ways," Mikoto said, preparing to dash forwards.

Sasuke didn't need to turn around to know that the rest of Hakumei had doubled back and was preparing to attack.

What happened after that was something that none of them expected. Sasuke had seen some of the Hyuuga clan, but they had been busily fighting among themselves for the most part. He had kind of written them off as completely unimportant.

He was shocked when Hyuuga Hiashi jumped from a building, alone, and commenced an attack. Now, Sasuke had seen Neji and Hinata's Juuken, but this was different. This was almost like a dance as he spun, barely even touching the man nearest him before he collapsed, coughing blood.

"Hinata!" He called out, "I know that you're there. I recognized you the moment I saw you."

He spun again, dodging Mikoto's attack and Yumi's whip.

"Go! Get out, and take Hanabi with you!"

"O-otou-san," Hinata whispered, "Why?"

For a moment he looked behind him. Sasuke saw his and Hanata's eyes meet, and she looked away.

Sasuke didn't have to be told twice. He turned around and ran, trying to ignore the sound of his mother screaming for him to stop, and the knowledge that for the sake of his daughters, Hyuuga Hiashi was about to be killed for treason against Konoha.

* * *

**Omake:** Cruel and Unusual Punishment

At some time in the indeterminate imaginary future, Tayuya was used to the idea of torture. She had done it herself several times, and had always thought that you could mentally prepare for almost anything.

She didn't think that this was going to be anything that she couldn't handle. Even if two of her captors kept grinning and nudging one another with their elbows in a way that showed that they were really twelve years old.

"Oh, what are you going to do, stick a bug down my shirt?" Tayuya snarled.

The blond kid smiled brightly.

"Nope, Kimimaro came up with a much better idea."

As if on cue, the only door out of the bare little room that she was tied up to a chair in opened, and the chauvinist came in, carrying something in a bowl that was making all of his little friends back up quickly with nervous looks at it.

"Now, prepare yourself for the worst thing that any human has ever experienced. Either you tell us everything that you know about Oto, or we will subject you to it," Kimimaro said and showed her what looked like a bunch of black fuzzy things sitting in some soymilk. "Behold, Tsunade's special recipe: Industrial Strength Ninja Puffs."

Slowly he stuck a chopstick into it which gave an odd squelching sound.

"Don't antagonize them," the pink haired girl whispered, "We still don't know if they're aware yet."

Tayuya stared at the black ball for a moment and closed her eyes.

"Do your worst!" she hissed.

The thing was stuck into her mouth and she gagged.

"It's trying to eat my stomach!" she gasped out.

"That's just the chemicals reacting," the blond said. "We think. We do know that this is the healthiest thing on Earth, and if you survive eating them, you'll probably never get sick."

That would imply that you could survive eating more of them.

"I'll talk," Tayuya said.

It was the ultimate shame that she had lost, not to an enemy nin, but to a cereal.

* * *

_Done. And the Invasion Arc is over. Finally. _

_I'm so sorry for this delay, but I've had so much work to do along with another story to worry about. Please forgive me. At least I got you in time for a Halloween treat though!_

_Additional Notes:_

_Naruto on Yumi: Well, Sasuke didn't get around to telling him, and Naruto's still stuck on 'she's weird' and 'she's really mean'. He knows that she has the Sharingan and that she shouldn't have it, but that's about it. Naruto doesn't learn things via osmosis. He doesn't in the series, and he doesn't in any fanfic that I ever write . _

_Zabuza: Rejoice, Zabuza fans, I had intended on killing him early on in this chapter, but decided against it, so you have a temporary reprieve on his life. Maybe later. So, he's going to hang around. Kind of. You'll see what plans I have for him in time._

_Kisame: I had an idea in one of my outlines about Haku showing up at the last moment and saving Zabuza by making a giant ice cube fall on his head, but it just seemed too stupid. It would have been funny, particularly when Kisame woke up to find out that Hakumei had stolen his sword. This would have begun a long omake series about Kisame and his sword hunt. Maybe I'll have it as a kind of AU...I really liked it._

_Hiashi: So, he's finally here. I'll explain more next chapter.  
_

_Thank you so much for your patience with this story and it's long delays. I hope to get the next one out sooner._

_Please review_

_~Pryotra_


	32. Part 2: Aftermath

_Author's Corner: Arg, I'm finally getting to updating this after leaving everyone hanging for the last couple months. Things have been a little busy. I'm really sorry I took that bet since I also have to do that second story. I've also finally got something that resembles a working outline for a novel, so maybe one day, I'll be making some kind of shameless advertizing about something I wrote._

_Maybe. If I'm lucky._

_So, here really begins my next arc, and the last part of Part 2. It also ends Hakumei as a story. That's right people, the final part is going to be it's own story. If only because it's way too big for me to stick onto this on anymore. I think that it's going to start looking slightly...intimidating. If it doesn't already, so after this part, you'll have to add me to author alerts if you want to get the story when it's hot off the press. _

_Thoughts on the manga: You know...Kishi...you've really...ruined something kind of interesting. It would have been so much more fun if the Kyuubi was simply a force of evil. This feels like some kind of fanfic. I refuse to do it! I completely refuse! Too bad! I'm going to do it MY WAY! I have the right of fandom! I am independent! I am capable! I am...abusing the exclamation mark. Though, I must admit, at least you're doing it well enough. Ohh...Sasuke Itachi confrontation...and alliance...Kabuto...great, now I kind of feel sorry for you..._

_I still hate you, Sasuke._

_Thanks to the Epitome of Eccentricity for being my Beta now that MegaB has had to leave us. I'm really grateful._

_**Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.  
-Confucius **_

* * *

It was a sign of just how desperate Jiraiya was that he didn't even bother to ask what Uchiha Itachi was doing helping them. He just kind of accepted that he was there, and that he was very useful. Jiraiya supposed that he'd ask questions later. If they survived long enough to ask questions later.

The fact was, with the unconscious Orochimaru as something of a handicap, the arrival of Itachi, Zabuza and that...cat girl (hm...cat girl romance. slightly cliche, but still...if done right...) was a blessing as far as he was concerned.

"Alright, we just need to hold them off for little while. Long enough for everyone to get out. Then we need to get out ourselves," Jiraiya ordered when the three were close enough to hear him.

"That sounds so easy," the cat girl said, rolling her eyes before dodging a barrage of senbon heading her way.

Zabuza hadn't bothered to wait for orders, he'd just jumped to the attack, slashing happily anything that so much as moved in his general direction.

Itachi, nodded once, much like the ANBU captain that he had once been and proceeded to attack, summoning a Honsenka and using the pause to come closer and attack with a katana. Was it just him, or was Itachi saving his energy? Not that Jiraiya had ever ordered the guy around, he just seemed to be holding back for some reason.

There was a small explosion and Jiraiya caught the kunai that had flown towards him between two fingers and sent his hair on the attack as two high ranking ROOT nin ran towards him. The hair struck one of them, and he disappeared. Great. Bunshin.

There was a pop above him, and Jiraiya saw the third nin falling down towards him. Jiraiya jumped back, his hair forming a shield around him prepared the hand signs for an all out assault on the three of them.

At least Tsunade wasn't there to laugh at him.

* * *

_The boy looked at his two fighting teammates, wondering if they would manage to live through the test to be a Genin team, let alone a real misson..._

Noise. Shouting.

_He sat in his apartment room, brushing some black hair out of his face and listening to the silence of the empty house. Surely, if it wasn't for the war...he would have been with his parents. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right... they hadn't even been killed by an enemy nin. Just a stray mine. It had been such a simple, silly way to die..._

_It wasn't fair..._

A battle? What had happened?

_They had poisoned him. It was kind of ironic since he had taken the 'Hebi' jokes and turn them into his personal style. It just was too perfect that he'd die of poison. Snakes weren't immune to their own poison after all._

"_Don't fall asleep! Stay with me!" the girl's voice was desperate, __"I'__ve almost got it."_

_There was a scream from somewhere nearby, and the boy gritted his teeth._

"_Just go, that idiot needs your help," he muttered. It wasn't like she was going to make it in time anyways. _

_The girl glared at him, and for the first time he noticed that she actually was quite determined. Not just the privileged girl that he'd always seen and treated her as. Maybe...maybe he'd misjudged her._

"_He'll be fine," the girl said, her voice certain, and it gave him hope, __"W__e both know that he's pretty much invulnerable. You've beaten him up enough times to prove that. Some Grass nin isn't going to be able to get through that thick skull."_

_He laughed weakly. He could see the flashes of his teammate's white hair as he fought, yelling unnecessarily as he attacked. Idiot...didn't he know that he was just giving away his position? If he lived...he'd have to tell him off...maybe show him how to do that attack without killing himself..._

Something was wrong.

_That had been the first time that he'd looked at his teammates as more than just a necessary evil. When he'd seen the reason why they divide them all into cells. Because...you have to have something...or else you lose touch with reality. It was the first time he'd noticed that other people are struggling too. That he wasn't the only person who had suffered...that he couldn't say that he'd suffered more than someone else._

_That...he wasn't alone._

His head hurt.

_Why? Why hadn't he been chosen? Why had a man half his age been named in his place? What did Minato have that he, one of the Sannin, didn't? How could Saratobi-sensei just destroy the dream that he had had since he could walk so easily.?'Minato carries the Will of Fire' ...hadn't he? Hadn't he always defended Konoha? How could he!_

_The man needed a walk. It was a bitter thing to watch the man who you had seen as your father crush your dreams. He would stop by to see his teammates soon. Even now that the Genin team had been disbanded for years and they all had taken teams of their own, they still were teamed together in missions. _

_It wouldn't be easy for any of them. Particularly when Minato was...Jiraiya's student. He was going to be torn between wanting to celebrate with his student and wanting to do something to help his old friend. The man sighed. _

It was nearly splitting. He had to take...protect...destroy...Konoha...find the others...kill them...warn them...

_There wasn't much left of the western part of the city after the Kyuubi attack. It had all but destroyed the wall on it's way, and there were still bits and pieces of the Chakra floating about. And now there was the issue with the child. Minato have left them with a Jinchuuriki and the city wasn't sure if they should celebrate, hale the child as a hero or kill it._

_This wasn't Kushina or someone who they knew. This was an unknown child who might turn on them. At least so they thought. Many believed that the boy would be driven mad by the voice of the monster, others thought that it would be able to devour the soul of the child, since it was nothing but an infant, and only a few were in favor of keeping the child alive._

_It was understandable, but it didn't change what it was._

_Also...some very sadistic part of him just thought that it would be interesting. The boy would...change things, and he was always interested in that. He was so busy with his own thoughts that the figure came on him out of nowhere. Really...it had seemed to appear out of the dark like a ghost. He only had time to turn and jump back when-_

Jiraiya's voice? An attack?

Like a snake that had been woken, he lashed out violently, his tongue slashing through the thing that was making the sound, but trying to avoid Jiraira. He stood up, his vision still blurry and the taste of blood in his mouth. Nin in black. Threat.

He wasn't sure who he was, or what he was doing, but the motions somehow came naturally to him. Almost on sixth sense alone, he dodged the kunai and kicked. It was fluid, natural feeling. Something moved behind him. White. Jiraiya. His...friend...enemy...teammate. Not a threat. He was attacking from the other side. Back to back on a strange surface.

* * *

Orochimaru was either not quite conscious or not quite sane. Jiraiya wasn't sure which. Still, he was moving, and standing back to back with him was at least better than having to defend the idiot. Hopefully, he would be able to tell the difference between friend and foe.

"Rasengan!" Jiraiya called as he summoned his student's weapon and pushed it into the stomach of the man who'd just managed to jump on Gamabunta's back. The ball of swirling energy caused the fabric of the ROOT uniform to come apart as the man fell. If he had survived the fall, he didn't survive Gamabunta jumping on him in his attack on the army.

Gamaken was also cutting through, but one of Orochimaru's stray snakes seemed was attacking the toad, probably more out of the traditional rivalry than anything else.

"Oi, Hebi-kun, call off your summon!" Jiraiya said to Orochimaru.

Orochimaru turned and blinked at him once but didn't say anything.

Yeah.

There was an explosion and Jiraiya's mind went other places. They just needed to hold out a little longer.

* * *

As a Jinchuuriki, Yugito was used to some pretty bad situations, but facing down an army with nothing but one of the Sannin, some psycho with a sword who probably would have happily charged the whole army alone, and some guy from an organization that was supposed to be tracking her kind down for some unknown reason was pretty ridiculous.

Still, she supposed that she could still be in that cage.

It was clear that they were acting as a buffer, so that the rest of the...whatever they were...could get out with their lives. Honestly, Yugito didn't expect to live to see the next morning. ROOT just kept coming. When one was killed, three more seemed to appear out of nowhere, and the Hokage himself hadn't even bothered to come. Then again, Danzou rarely actually fought. From what Yugito remembered from various scraps of information that she had found, Danzou more or less only appeared in battle when necessary. It was unusual, since a ninja leader usually was at the head of a battle, but it had been done during the time before villages.

At least, that was what Bee said.

And Bee was usually someone who should be counted as being right. After all, he learned a lot of things from his brother.

The Akatsuki guy suddenly appeared next to her. He was holding a katana and looked strangely tired.

"Yugito-san, are you able to summon your tailed beast again?" he asked.

Yugito tested her levels of Chakra, while throwing a kunai with a chain for three exploding tags attached to it towards a cluster. They dodged, but the thing exploded before they'd gone too far.

"I'm not sure. Nibi's not the easiest thing to summon up at the best of times. I can keep her out for about five minutes, tops."

Itachi sighed, "If we are not called on to retreat, both of us will need to unleash our strongest techniques."

Somehow, she noticed for the first time that they'd been moving closer and they were suddenly back to back, almost surrounded. As they both prepared to spring apart from one another and attack, ignoring the fact that the sword guy was running around, slaughtering everything that moved without even thinking about getting too deep into the army, a signal flare erupted. It looked like a fireball.

"Sasuke?" the Akatsuki guy breathed.

Yugito didn't care who it came from, obviously that was a signal, and they were going to get out.

"Yugito-san, help me take Zabuza-san. We might need him."

"Why are we going to need that psycho?" Yugito asked, watching Zabuza running the wrong way.

"He's high ranking in his abilities, and knows a great deal about how Kiri's political structure is formed. And, unlike my late partner, he will most likely say something about it."

"Alright, fine," Yugito muttered. She supposed if she was going to be changing allegiances, she might as well be in a well informed and powerful group. The bit about insanity wasn't all that important. After all, they all seemed to be slightly insane. A Jinchuuriki who believed in friendship, a blood thirsty swordsmen, a guy who used to be on the side of side of some creepy group and a bored Jinchuuriki who was thought to be dead.

It kind of worked she supposed.

* * *

Hyuuga Hiashi had recognized his daughter and his nephew from the moment the he saw them. It had been a few days after the break while people waited for the official exams to start. They had been walking together and passed by him. Had it been anyone else, he would have thought that the stiffening of their bodies would have been due to the fact that they recognized him and were nervous, but they're faces were too obvious.

Hinata did not look just like her mother, and she didn't even look all that much like him, and Neji looked more like his female cousin Hikari than he did either of his parents. Still, Hiashi knew them. Everything in the way that they held themselves, and the way that they moved. Everything spoke of training to use the Juuken.

So, he was able to guess that the six children who had disappeared and who had started the war had returned.

So, at some level, he had been mentally prepared for the attack that was coming. Hiashi couldn't conceive of any reason for them to be here for anything that wasn't a full, all out attack on the city. They hadn't revealed themselves, and, while Hiashi didn't know why they were going to attack, he couldn't bare to face his daughter that way again. So, he would be silent.

He hadn't planed on dying.

Still, there were worse things, he supposed then dying for the sake of his family. Particularly when Hanabi, who idolized Hinata, had suddenly disappeared just when the small rebellion was starting to die down.

The Uchiha clan must have finally realized that one of their attackers was actually one of their own clan members, since they had all come to collect him. Well, if keeping them busy would allow Hinata, Hanabi and Neji to escape...

Hiashi attacked, forcing Uchiha Hiro to his knees, coughing blood, and managed to graze Uchiha Takashi, who jumped back, but started to look like he was in pain. It would hurt more the more he moved, even a light touch was enough to cause tremendous pain if not to close a Chakra point.

The whip appeared to Hiashi's side and he spun, trying to capture it in the sudden vortex of Chakra.

"Hakkesho Kaiten," he said softly.

No matter how good Yumi was at controlling the metal, she couldn't hold on to it, if the sudden sharp intake of breath was any indication. It also forced those members of the Uchiha Military Police who hadn't been hit by the attack and tossed against a building to hang back.

"Get out of the way, Hiashi," Mikoto snarled, "That is not your child anymore. She's simply an enemy of your own home."

For one moment the mother and the father stared at one another.

"Kushina would be ashamed of you, Mikoto, to see you become the worst things about the clan you grew up in. Then again, she wasn't always the best judge of character, so I suppose that nothing to be surprised about."

"How dare you!" Mikoto hissed. "Kushina died as a hero to this village, sealing away a monster into her own son. You are more than willing to let an enemy who attempted to destroy this village go free because one of them happens to be your child. Don't you dare preach to me about how Kushina would feel!"

"I suppose that has always been the only difference between us. When all is said and done, I can never sacrifice my family...no matter what. Hakke Kusho."

Mikoto was blasted off her feet, hitting the side of a small dango shop with a thud. He spun around to deflect the second whip before Yumi could reach him. The young woman narrowed her eyes at him, but Hiashi could see that she was breathing too hard to be normal. She had already been through an attack that had overwhelmed her, and Hiashi had been saving his strength.

"You know that you're simply delaying the inevitable," Yumi said. "They will be found."

"Konoha is no longer in any position to chase after a small team. This attack has drained the city of several good ninja, and shown that we can be attacked. What's more, many people saw Uchiha Sasuke. They knew that another of the Uchiha, one who supposedly was killed by Iwa years ago, is alive. And why is that and what happened to Sasuke? The village is going to have to focus on rebuilding its defenses before it even dreams of chasing its new missing nin."

It would be a harsh blow in a way. Konoha's fighting force would be weakened and people would question if they had fully investigated when they had attacked Iwa. If they could just get away...

The stare off continued, quiet and controlled, between those of the Uchiha clan that remained standing and the head of the Hyuuga main house. The Sharingan was powerful, but Hiashi wasn't going to attack until they were, rendering it's ability to see five seconds into the future meaningless and the copying ability was completely useless if they didn't have the Byakugan.

It was a complete stand off.

At least...it had been.

There was almost a ripple as Danzou appeared, he was limping slightly, and his bandages were still on, and he seemed to be alone.

The two stood in silence for a moment, gaging one another. Danzou hadn't been in the battle. He would have claimed to have been too weak for that. But he had come here personally, probably after being messaged that Hiashi had gone insane.

"Danzou," Hiashi said calmly.

"I see you've weighed the life of a traitor daughter to be worth more than your own home and everyone in it," Danzou said, leaning on his cane.

Hiashi would have dearly loved to tell him to stop acting and just attack.

"I wished protect something that I have always been unable to keep," Hiashi said calmly, "I suppose that I can buy them a little more time."

"Perhaps,Danzou said.

He moved forwards, and using his good hand began.

"Futon: Shinku Renpa," Danzou said, and the blades of wind began to form.

"Hakkesho Kaiten," Hiashi said. He could deflect the attack all day. At least until exhaustion set in.

"Doton: Shinju Zanshu," a voice said under him, and Hiashi had enough time to look down and see the white mask looking up at him as he was dragged into the ground, just in time to see another slice of wind coming straight for him.

Hiashi didn't look away. He didn't flinch, but somehow, the thing passed through him and the earth lightened it's hold. Climbing out, Hiashi prepared to continue, not sure what was going on until he saw that something had changed. The streets were empty other than the man facing him.

It was himself...only maybe a little younger.

"Hiazashi," Hiashi said, looking at his long dead twin brother.

Hiazashi smiled.

"Are you surprised that I would be the one waiting for you?" he asked.

"Hinata-Hanabi-" Hiashi said, looking back for a moment. There was a gate there...maybe...

Hiazashi shook his head.

"It doesn't quite work that way. They'll be fine. You saved them. Besides, there's still things to do on this side. You'd been surprised at the work that the Sandaime has me going through to see if we can finally convince the Shinigami to cough up the Yondaimie..."

And so, Hiashi stepped forwards and, side by side with his brother, walked towards home.

* * *

Tsunade watched the mass exodus carefully. She had sent up the signal, so now all she had to do was wait for Jiraiya to come, and she wasn't going to leave without him. She'd even send Shizune ahead with the mix of prisoners and actual rebels. Though the oddest member of the group was the Suna elder Chiyo, who had quietly marched along in a way that said that either she'd gotten senile since they last met (which was highly unlikely) or she had been here for something different and got interested in something (which was likely).

Tsunade would have to worry about that later.

Now she had Jiraiya to wait for.

There was an explosion from somewhere, and Tsunade saw the figure of Gamabunta coming closer before disappearing, Jiraiya dashed up to her, followed by...Orochimaru...some Uchiha kid...Zabuza...and...some blond.

"Don't ask," Jiraiya said with a shrug, "They're helping."

At the moment, that was about all the recommendation they needed.

"Tsunade-hime..." Orochimaru muttered.

"Orochumaru..." Tsunade said softly, then almost jumped back as he collapsed, falling into her. She and Jiraiya caught him and looked at one another.

"I think the sounds of the battle kind of woke him up, but there's some damage done. Hopefully, he'll wake up again soon so we can see," Jiriaya said.

"Tsunade-sama!" Isaribi called, running up to them, "There's no sign of Hakumei."

Tsunade looked back, then she squared her shoulders.

"They know where to go. We don't have time to see where they are...they'll be fine," she said, taking a breath. Oh, please let them be fine. Please don't like the curse of that necklace claim someone else...

The Uchiha suddenly looked up, and Tsunade recognized the robe.

"Akatsuki?" she said, but in an instant, he had vanished.

* * *

No one so much as dared too look back as they jumped through the forest. No one talked either. They were all straining to hear if someone had followed them. Naruto had a good idea that Hinata's father could probably handle a lot, but eventually... he'd only bought them so much time, and they had to move as fast as they could and make as few marks as possible as they went.

What was harder that, because they were likely being followed, they had to make the trail as erratic as they could, meaning that they had to jump from tree to tree in random direction and occasionally have one of them just break off and going in a different direction.

So, it wasn't until almost midnight that they sat down and allowed themselves the luxury of conversation. Sasuke started a small fire in a cave and Sakura did a genjutsu over the thing so that anyone passing by would think that it was just a normal, empty cave.

"That was...bad," Naruto said after a while of everyone staring at the fire in complete and total silence, "That was...really...bad."

Hinata nodded mutely and then, softly at first, but louder and louder she started to cry. Naruto tried to pat her on the back, but she recoiled from him.

"It was my fault...it was all my fault," she sobbed, "If it wasn't for me..."

"It wasn't your fault, Hinata," Naruto muttered.

"Hiashi-sama made his decision, and it wasn't something that was split second," Neji said quietly, "It wasn't a mistake that he was there and he saved us. Maybe he was following us."

He had been mostly staring at the fire, not responding to anyone. Lost in his own thoughts.

"B-but why did he wait so long," Hinata whispered, "Why didn't he talk to us? I spent all this time thinking that he hated me..."

"I guess we'll never know," Haku said.

"But...he was the bravest man I've ever seen," Kimimaro added.

The others nodded, and were silent. It seemed that the only way that they could show any kind of thanks, respect or honor to a man who they hadn't even gotten to see die, but knew had done so to save them, was not to speak and to let Hinata sob and Neji think.

Finally, when Hinata had cried herself out, and she was only hiccuping a little Naruto put a hand on her shoulder. She smiled at him a little, a watery, forced smile.

"When...I was four...my father would train me everyday. No one else would be there. Just us. It was before my mother died. Before everything... He was always gentle with me. But then, he just stopped. I thought I resented him...I thought...I thought..."

Naruto nodded, and Hinata started to sob again.

* * *

Hinata finally had lain back and fallen asleep. Chakra exhaustion, physical exhaustion and mental exhaustion all had taken their toll on her, and Neji had gone off. He would talk if he wanted to, but at the moment, Sasuke thought he was more sorting through his own mixed and confused feelings.

In the end, he was the only one awake.

"You holding up, Sasuke?"

Sasuke jerked his head up to see Naruto looking at him.

"Wha-I thought you were looking after Hinata," Sasuke said, getting control of himself quickly.

"Haku gave her some tea. She's out like a light," Sakura shrugged coming up and sitting down.

Sasuke gave a wary look around them, but Gaara wasn't there (he was on guard duty) and the others looked like they'd fallen asleep. At least he didn't have to worry about everyone seeing him. And seeing his weakness.

"It's nothing. I'm fine," he grumbled.

He wasn't going to start whining. Particularly not after Hinata had lost her father. Yes, he'd just lost his, and the sudden realization make him feel sick simply because he really didn't feel anything.

"Yeah, fine," Sakura rolled her eyes, "You know...you've been through a lot too..."

"I haven't," Sasuke muttered, "I'm just weak. Why did I even pause. I knew better. I'd said I was going to rebel...I..."

"Was facing your mom," Naruto said, hitting Sasuke over the head lightly. "I'm not really the guy to talk about moms, but...I don't think I'd have run away easily. If it were mine. Besides, it didn't change anything. They would have been right behind us. You're not to blaim for Hiashi's death."

"I...if I'd attacked...if..." Sasuke muttered again, and found himself being hugged by Sakura.

"Dummy," she muttered, "As if that would have helped. Yes, you hesitated, because you're not a monster. She's still your mom."

And somehow, even though they never said the things he wanted to hear, it was enough. Even if it didn't make the problem go away, and it didn't promise that the next time that he was faced with something like that that he wouldn't freeze...it was at least something.

Sasuke didn't want to freeze up. He wanted to get revenge on Yumi for Sakura, and he wanted to make good his feud.

When he was younger, Sasuke had told Jiraiya that he'd wanted to show his family that he was just as special as his older brother was. Now, he had to chose something else. That goal was gone. His father was dead, his brother was in Akatsuki and his mother would probably attack him if they saw her again. Sasuke had failed his first goal, but he had made new ones.

"I promise, you guys," Sasuke said, "I'm going to get stronger, and I'm going to beat Yumi, and I'm going to crush that clan. I won't falter again."

For a moment, he thought he saw concern on the others' faces, but he assumed that it was only a shadow cast by the dying embers.

* * *

Anyone who knew Sound knew that the Fuuma clan had been the blood, sweat and tears of it. They had built this country, even when Orochimaru hadn't been there, and at some level, they had always believed that they would take it back. It wasn't surprising then that when news came of the disaster in Konoha that the rebellion followed so quickly.

Karin hadn't really thought that it was going to go that far thought.

It wasn't surprising that they'd lost. Not really, Karin had to admit that. The best fighters had gone with Orochimaru, so when the rebellion had come, there really hadn't been much of anyone to fight. That crystal user who Karin despised with all the hatred a twelve year old girl could muster had taken a lot of the experiments off and run. Presumably in hopes that Orochimaru would come back.

That had left all the rest of them to the mercy of the victorious Fuuma clan.

She'd never believed that Oto could fall. Well, she'd been proven wrong. Now, as a prisoner, she had to wait to see what they were going to do with her and with the experiments. Karin wasn't a kind girl, but at some level, she wasn't overly thrilled with people like Juugo, who really was more of a danger to himself, getting killed. Still, what else was there to do with him? Orochimaru had wanted him for some kind of experiment that had failed, but he was simply dangerous...

She wouldn't be killed, she was sure. Her abilities as a sensor were unmatched by any ninja.

Though, she had to admit, she had been pretty lucky not to have been selected to accompany Orochumaru-sama to Konoha.

"Oh, it's not fair!" she whined at the Fuuma guard, who'd long gotten annoyed with her and was still ignoring her, "Why did I have to get stuck here?"

Most of the prisoners also ignored her, though a few of them glared at her, and one them them, a white haired kid with very sharp looking teeth, chucked a fish bone at her.

"Oh, shut up, Karin!" Hozuki Suigetsu, an experiment who'd only been there for about two months and was therefore too mouthy for his own good, yelled. "You were loyal to Orochimaru, what are you whining about!"

She hated the feel of his Chakra. It was wet and slippery. Just like him.

Some girl with orange hair scowled at Karin, and Karin flipped her hair.

"You're confident," she said.

Karin smirked and arranged her glasses, "Of course! How could I die!"

The girl glared and stormed off, running towards a man a good deal older than her, who she obviously had a crush on.

How cute.

The man was talking to her in a low voice, and Karin could see the carrot top glance over her way. She smirked at the annoyed expression on the girl's face.

"Arashi-sama says that we're going to let you live," the girl said in an irritated voice, "But you're under my supervision, so if you set one toe out of line..."

Karin's glasses flashed.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

Suigestu snicked, "So, it's you, me and Juugo all together. Oh, this is going to be fun!"

"Juugo?" Karin blinked. Suigestu?

Maybe execution wouldn't have been so bad after all...

* * *

Camping wasn't easy. Even though most of the defectors had been young and there hadn't been many young children, it was still hard for Tsunade and Jiraiya to set up a genjustu big enough for everyone to fit in and not have someone accidentally walk out. That wasn't to mention the amount of Tsunade's time was taken treating the wounded.

She wished that Hakumei were there. Even the ones who weren't good at medical jutsu were at least able to work quickly. As it was, she only had Shizune, Isarabi, a girl named Ino, another girl named Tenten (who'd apparently decided that this was a good time to run away from home or something), and the few medics who'd fled with them to help.

Oh, and Jiraiya, but he was more trouble that he was worth.

The prisoners were at least being quiet. Well, the Sand siblings were being cooperative, and their teammate seemed to understand that if she didn't go along with things, the other two would cause her trouble. The sound prisoners that Hakumei had rounded up were all surly, but there wasn't much they could do about things.

The other Jinchuuriki, Yugito, had volunteered to patrol to make sure they weren't followed. Tsunade didn't trust her, so she'd sent Shikamaru and Chouji with her. If she tried anything, the Nara could easily capture her before she got too far. Even better, Yugito didn't know it. And it kept them from standing around worrying about their parents and getting in people's way.

Because of the amount of wounded, Tsunade had had to separate everyone who needed a medic into groups: those were were hurt, but only needed a little bit of treatment, those who were badly hurt and needed attention, those who would die without medical attention at that very moment. Most of the work involved her having to oversee Shizune or hold her breath and close her eyes as she used medical jutsu. It wasn't a surprise that everyone was so injured. Not really.

What was a surprise was when Chiyo, had started to help out. As she had to make poisons like any puppeteer, she was good at making drugs, and she making painkillers and disinfectants and both applying and giving them to the others.

"What are you doing here, Chiyo?" Tsunade hissed to her as they passed.

"Blunt and rude as ever, Slug girl," Chiyo cackled, "I was here to see how things were going to turn out, but now I've found something else more interesting."

"You realize that you're helping a group that attacked Suna's nin, don't you?" Tsunade asked. What was this woman up to?

Chiyo was dangerous. Even now when she was old and got tired easily. She was smart, and she hated Konoha with a passion.

"No, I'm helping a group who attacked the village that I hate the most, and they just happen to contain some old enemies that changed sides. Suna was stupid to make the attack, and I advised against it, but that fool of a Kage wouldn't listen. Besides, I speak on behalf of his children and make sure that they live. I do have some loyalties."

And she knew that no fool in their right minds would try to capture her. From what Tsunade had heard through Jiraiya's almost all knowing spy network that she wasn't that much weaker than she used to be. She'd been a monster when she was younger.

It was odd how circumstances brought together old enemies.

"And you're only interested in the children of a man who you rejected as leader?" Tsunade scoffed, "At least give me that credit. I'm not senile yet."

Chiyo cackled a little, "So, I suppose both of us have held on to our wits haven't we? Alright, I'll tell you. You're not going to leave me alone until I do anyways. I got interested in a little girl with pink hair who cared enough about a bystander to cut her chances of winning in half. Maybe it reminded me of me..."

She walked off, cackling again, and Tsunade blinked. Sakura? Chiyo had taken an interest in Sakura of all people. She should probably be proud. Her little girl was going around getting allies. Or whatever Chiyo was going to be.

Tsunade supposed that beggars really couldn't be choosers, and Chiyo hadn't used poison on the subjects, and she wasn't in the position to afford distrust.

This was truly the worst place to be in.

To be trusting Chiyo of all people...

* * *

It was late that night when Tsunade finally got to see Jiraiya, sitting in his tent, writing something down with Orochimaru laying there unconscious on the cot by him.

"Oto's had a rebellion," Jiraiya said as she came in.

"Who cares?" Tsunade asked, scowling at him. She wasn't in the mood for political games. She'd just nearly thrown up all over one of her patients because he'd been bleeding badly. Hemophobia was a really stupid thing for a medic nin to have.

"Well, aside from the people there, it's going to change things. Ibiki wrote to say that Konoha's been pretty harshly hit. It can't afford to sent any of its troops in pursuit of us because if they do, they'll be open for an attack by someone else. Oto and Suna are both busy with problems, it appears that no one knows where the Kazekage is, and people are starting to be afraid that he was dead before he even talked about the invasion. We should be able to make a clean get away."

There was a moan from the cot.

Both Jiraiya and Tsunade turned around, both of them ready to attack, as Orochimaru opened his eyes.

For a while he stared at the ceiling, but then he looked around, and his yellow eyes fell on them.

"Jiraiya...Tsunade...where are we..? What are we doing camped out?" He muttered.

Tsunade jerked her head at Jiraiya how came a little closer to him. Tsunade noticed that his hair was a little more spiky than it usually was.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Jiraiya asked, trying and failing to keep a light tone.

"The Kyuubi's attack was over...the Yondaime is dead...his son is now a Jinchuuriki," the shrug was clear even though he sounded tired, "I went for a walk...and that's it... were we attacked?"

He looked angry, but it was a familiar look of irritation that Tsunade remembered. The anger of a man who thought that he was too good to have fallen for such a basic attack.

Had it been...before, she would have reminded him how the basic attacks were sometimes the most effective, and that would have started out some debate or other with Jiraiya chipping in when he wasn't busy with something. But it wasn't before, and Tsunade was sure anymore.

How could she just...let go? After all this time, all this anger, she was supposed to just forget it? What if he was acting? What if this was a trick?

What if-

Orochimaru looked between the two of them, taking in the mixed emotions on both of their faces.

"Something happened didn't it?" he asked, "Tell me. What happened when I was unconscious. Did Iwa go after the boy or something."

It was so logical. So like him.

Jiraiya finally moved, he leaned against the wall, still slightly out of striking distance, and grinned at him. Orochimaru gave him a suspicious look.

"You've got so much to catch up on!" Jiraiya said brightly, "You were kinda evil then, so maybe you don't remember anything, but don't worry, Tsunade and me are behind you!"

"Don't just decide things on your own!" Tsunade yelled before she could even help herself.

And then, just for one second, it was old times.

As much as it ever would be.

* * *

Kiba felt like he'd just been used as Yumi's whipping boy and then had Sora practice with that freaky claw of his on him.

And his mom hadn't even gotten to him yet.

He'd been found unconscious but beaten up by reinforcements, and his mother was trying to convince Danzou that the fact that Kiba had been spared meant that the children weren't completely lost to Konoha, and if they sent out a team after them, they might be able to reclaim them. Once she was done with that, she'd get to him.

Shino was gone, either captured or...defected...his clan was, as usual not telling anyone anything. They were a pretty secretive bunch at the best of times, but now, they weren't even talking to Danzou. Kiba had seen a small group talking together, so he had to suppose that they were debating on where they were going to stand on the issue of Shino before doing anything.

Uchiha Mikoto was talking to Danzou as well. Apparently, Masaru was Uchiha Sasuke. He should have recognized that stupid smirk...

Than again...he should have recognized a lot of things...

Naruto had to think that what he was doing was right. He couldn't have really turned against Konoha. He hadn't been saying how they needed to be crushed or whatever. Just that...he didn't understand something.

Kiba growled. He'd hated it when Naruto tried to be mysterious when they were kids. It was the most annoying thing. With this injuries there wasn't much that he could really think about other than that either.

Akamaru was still recovering, and he had no one to talk to. The only thing he could do was eavesdrop on people's conversations. At least he'd gotten to hear a kind of funny thing between some guy and his wife about the guy's habit of putting things into one container. She was saying how the last time someone had asked for an asprin, she hadn't been she if the pill would cure the head, dry up their cold, make them regular again or sedate them.

"Yumi? Are you alright?" Kiba almost sat up in bed as he heard his sister's voice.

"Of course," Yumi's voice was calm.

How did Hana know Yumi?

"I don't know, you've been through a lot, what with Itachi appearing again and all..."

"Don't talk about him," Yumi's voice had a definite edge to it, "Filthy coward. Now his brother's going down his path... Poor Mikoto-sama is distraught and to add Fugaku's death."

"You'll find them. You'll find both of them. You're the best, Yumi," Hana's voice was strained. Kiba knew that sound. It was the one when she was lying, but trying to comfort someone, "But...Yumi...why would Sasuke turn on you...Itachi was Akasuki, and Sasuke..."

"Who cares?" Yumi asked.

"Well, it's odd. We always thought that Sasuke and the others were taken by Iwa, but we never found any trace of them, not even in S-class records. Nothing. Maybe they really weren't lying and it wasn't even a branch. Why would the _Sannin_ of all people betray us. If we could find out, maybe we could tell Danzou-sama and-"

"And what?" Yumi's voice wasn't sharp, it was more...bored.

"I don't know. Repair Konoha's reputation."

"Hana...you're a good friend."

"Heh," could hear the shrug.

"No, you're my best friend. You always have been. You've always been the closest person to me since Shishi died. I am grateful you know. You've...always done what you can for me, but now...I'm going to have to ask you one last favor."

"What's that?"

Kiba heard the sudden snap, but he didn't really know what he was.

"Give me the power to destroy Itachi. Thank you, Hana. I will never forget what you did for me. You'll be remembered as a hero. I promise that your name will grace the memorial stone."

Kiba listened for Hana's reply, but there was nothing.

Slowly, he began to realize just what he had heard. Bile rose to his throat. He reached to summon the nurse, to summon anyone, but Yumi's voice spoke again effectively cutting off anything that he had been about to do.

"Goodbye, Inuzuka Hana. For your sake, I will not harm your brother, no matter if he is listening. Your death alone is enough to grant what I want."

A scent wafted towards Kiba, something like smoke, but lighter and more metallic smelling. It was only then that he threw up and managed to call the nurse, yelling at them to look for his sister.

Hana's body was discovered with her neck snapped, and Uchiha Yumi was nowhere to be found.

* * *

**Omake: Penance**

"I feel terrible," Orochimaru muttered.

He and Jiraiya were sitting in the tent where Orochimaru was recovering. Tsunade had needed to go and

"You should," Jiraiya said, "It was very creepy. Particularly the pedo thing. I swear you were doing that whole 'I want your body' on purpose."

"At least I didn't finish that body transfer jutsu," Orochimaru sighed. That would have taken years to clean up. Not that he didn't want to figure out some sort of ultimate healing technique, but changing bodies probably wouldn't work very well. Souls were usually tied to a specific vessel. Prolonging the life and vitality of one vessel was one thing...

Jiraiya was looking at him with narrowed eyes.

Orochimaru narrowed his back at him. He could do it better.

"If you want me to prove how sorry I am, we're a little old for me to be walking around in girl's dress," Orochimaru said dryly.

"No, I have something much better while your recovering to show me just how sorry you really, really are," Jiraiya grinned in a way that Orochimaru found worrying and then made a hand sign.

In a puff of smoke a pile of books appeared next to them. All of them were brightly colored, most of them had faintly suggestive names, and all of them were written by the Great Jiraiya. Jiraiya himself had sat down and handed him one of the books. _Icha Icha Dreams._

"Tell me what you think!"

* * *

_FINALLY! HA! I DID IT! I GOT IT OUT! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_

_Ahem._

_Right, so sorry and all that, but it's summer, so I hope to me back to my update every three weeks thing that I used to on. Hopefully, there will be no emergencies and I can make good that statement. _

_Additional Notes:_

_Orochimaru's point of view: That was the most choppy, difficult thing I've ever had to write. I'm trying to show how damaged he really is mentally, and how his mind is pretty much having to build itself up around the damage. He doesn't remember anything after he got jumped, due to brain damage, and he's not going to remember. Ever. A lot of plots have amnesia as a thing that comes and goes, but, really, it's usually permanent. Did you really expect me to let Orochimaru off easily?_

_Mikoto: I remain unrepentant. I'm going to keep her characterization. My reasoning is simple: one, people change from when you were a kid to when you were older. Two, just because a person likes you doesn't mean they're a good person. In a good story, morality isn't determined by whether or not you like a main character, therefore, while Mikoto still was good friends with Kushina, I'm going to keep her characterization that I have going on. Though I might explain it somewhat more later._

_Hiashi: That was easily the hardest and most emotional scene I've ever written. I simply hope that I did it any kind of justice._

_Hinata's breakdown: She just didn't seem to be the type to seek comfort from other people. Judging by the show at least._

_The Fuuma Clan: Does anyone remember the Part 1 filler where there was this girl named Sasame from the Fuuma clan that was approached by Orochimaru with a chance to get their power back? This is them. Well, when one powerful figure vanishes, someone's going to fill in, and Oto doesn't seem like the place where a total defeat and capture is going to mean that everything is waiting for you when you come back. _

_Hana: Yes, I killed her. Yes, I've been planning on this. No, I didn't write her a fight scene. Honestly, I don't know emough about her to make one, and I thought that it would be even worse if she was killed by someone who she had completely trusted. In case you didn't hate Yumi before, now you'll hate her. Why don't you think I've mentioned Hana before this too much? I'll discuss the ramifications of this in the next chapter. I'm really killing people off in this chapter aren't I? _

_Translations:_

_Hakke Kusho Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm: This technique is similar in practice to Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven, but has a specific target rather than a general area. To perform it, the user precisely pinpoints the enemy's vital points with the Byakugan and releases a high-speed palm thrust. A "vacuum shell" compressed using the Gentle Fist is formed to attack the opponent's vitals from a distance, blowing them off their feet with tremendous force before they even notice they were hit. _

_Futon: Shinku Renpa Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves: The user takes a deep breath and exhales several blades of wind at different angles, by rapidly moving their head in various directions. The power of this technique can be dramatically enhanced when utilised in conjunction with the effects of extreme suction, such as that generated by the Baku, where the augmented attack proved effective enough to even slice through the defences of a complete Susanoo. _

_Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique: This technique conceals the user underground and drags the object of their attack down into the earth, robbing them of their freedom. In addition, they can start another attack. _

_Review!_

_~Pryotra_


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